2 days ago
Powerful stage adaptation of literary classic tours to Stroud
A POWERFUL stage adaptation of a literary classic is touring to Stroud.
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography will be performed at the Cotswold Playhouse on Friday, October 10, at 7.30pm.
It's being staged to mark the 200th anniversary of the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth Brontë, Charlotte Brontë's older sisters, who died in the spring of 1825.
Both girls died of consumption at 10 and 11 years old, when Charlotte was only nine.
Shane Morgan, director of the production, said: "There is no doubt whatever that the devastating impact of Maria and Elizabeth's deaths at just 10 and 11 years old respectively was key to the germination of the Jane Eyre whose orphaned heroine endures childhood loss, rejection and isolation as she embarks on her quest for familial love and somewhere to belong."
The production is a revival of the 2015 adaptation by award-winning playwright Dougie Blaxland.
It is produced by Live Wire and Roughhouse Theatre.
The same team won the 2021 National Campaign for the Arts Award.
The original production was described as 'a theatrical tour de force from a company with a rare gift for bringing classics to life with loyalty, energy and intrigue'.
Movement director Moira Hunt said the story still resonates today.
She said: "Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre broke the mould of the Victorian female stereotype through its dramatisation of a woman of independent mind and means who refuses to be subservient in any way to her male counterparts."
Alison Campbell, who trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, will reprise her role as Jane Eyre.
She said: "The revival of the production to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the death of Maria and Elizabeth Brontë is of great significance in honouring the extraordinary Brontë family as a whole and highlighting the creative genius that emerged in the face of tragedy."
More information and tickets are available at the Cotswold Playhouse website.
