PASADENA, Calif. — A Noise Within’s theatrical adaptation of Jane Eyre is in a long line of interpretations for other mediums of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 literary classic. A 20th Century Fox trailer for its 1943 Tinseltown translation called Eyre “the most widely read novel in our language.”
I don’t know if this was true at the time, but Brontë’s Bildungsroman about the orphaned, abused child who becomes a governess at the troubled Thornfield estate of Edward Rochester has certainly had many movie makeovers, often with top-notch casts. The Fox version co-starred Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, fresh from her 1942 Best Actress Oscar win for Hitchcock’s Suspicion, which interestingly had certainly plot similarities. (This Eyre was helmed by Robert Stevenson, who in the 1960s would direct Disney pictures including Mary Poppins, The Love Bug, That Darn Cat! – which, according to Francis MacDonnell’s Policing Show Business, infuriated J. Edgar Hoover because it made fun of FBI agents.)
Other notable screen iterations of Eyre co-starred George C. Scott opposite Susannah York in Delbert Mann’s 1970 rendition; a 1983 TV mini-series starring a pre-007 Timothy Dalton; Franco Zeffirelli’s 1996 movie co-starring William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg; and most recently, a 2011 film with an all-star cast, featuring Michael Fassbender (that protean actor who can play anyone), Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax, Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Reed, and Imogen Poots as Blanche Ingram.
Eyre-heads are likely to find the leap from Brontë’s page to A Noise Within’s stage, as penned by OBIE-award winning playwright Elizabeth Williamson, a worthy successor to these previous productions. This is so, despite the fact that due to the limits of the theatrical medium, in contrast to film, it’s much harder to depict horseback accidents, architectural expanse, flashbacks, lightning bolts striking a tree and fires onstage than it is to do so onscreen. However, as helmed by ANW’s Producing Artistic Director Geoff Elliott, the cast captures the essence and ambiance of the spirit Brontë imbued Jane Eyre with.
Jeanne Syquia embodies the title character’s intensity, integrity, intellect and sensitivity with her finely etched portrait of the 19ish-year-old governess yearning to breathe free. Her performance and the plot fully dramatize the plight of 19th-century women in 1847 England, which Friedrich Engels chronicled in his 1845 study The Condition of the Working Class in England. In fiction, like her contemporary fellow scribes Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy, Brontë details and essays the class relations of Britain’s hierarchical, patriarchal system that oppressed workers like Jane.
Although Frederick Stuart is not as physically imposing as some of his motion picture predecessors were in the domineering part of Edward Rochester, the actor does convey the tragic grandeur of a man who, as he laments, has been “out-maneuvered by fate.” Despite his wealth and privilege, the mysteries and secrets—which he tries to keep Jane from learning or to shield her from—upend his role as the master of the Thornfield Gothic manor and eviscerate his power. If Jane the plucky protagonist can be viewed as a proto-feminist, one could argue that Rochester is an archetype of the brooding angry young man characters that filled the postwar stage and screen in British “kitchen sink dramas” and with characterizations by Marlon Brando, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.
Except, of course, Rochester is actually a troubled middle-aged man at least twice as old as Jane, not to mention also, like, you know, her employer: In the context of today’s #MeToo movement, their relationship can be seen as an eyebrow-raising excursion into the dynamics of power imbalances. Jane is keenly aware of this economic disparity, which Brontë cleverly (if rather improbably) works out as the plot unfolds. (The age difference between Jane and “Mr. Rochester” never seems to bother the teenager, which of course is fodder for middle-aged male egos.) Some may also consider the saga’s depiction of mental illness to be archaic and problematic.
Members of the supporting cast—Deborah Strang, Trisha Miller, Riley Shanahan, Bert Emmett, Stella Bullock and Julia Manis—all tackle multiple roles in bringing this simmering saga set in (presumably) 1840s England vividly, realistically alive. This sensibility is enhanced by Angela Balogh Colin’s period apparel, along with Tony Valdes’ wigs and makeup. Scenic designer Frederica Nascimento’s sets believably render the interiors of Thornfield. Ken Booth’s lighting communicates not only moods but, rather prophetically, fire (although not wildfires, unlike the Eaton flames that decimated neighborhoods near the ANW playhouse).
With its subplot of madness and terror, Jane Eyre is arguably a prototype of Gothic horror novels. The lead character’s name is symbolic; despite its spelling, Jane’s last name is pronounced like “air” – indicating she’s ethereal – plus as “heir,” referring to an unfolding plot twist. Of course, as in Charlotte’s younger Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (also published in 1847), at the root of Jane Eyre is sexual repression, which was especially acute during the Victorian era. In the first lines of Williamson’s play, the almost certainly virginal Jane enunciates an intense yearning for “action,” which could be interpreted as, among other things, an expression of sexual desire. The “will-they-or-won’t- they?” frisson between Jane and Rochester is palpable. Call it “Sense and Sensuality.” Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich would have had a field day putting Jane on the couch. (No wonder the Brontë sisters died so young.)
Be that as it may, all in all, director Elliott, bard Williamson, cast and crew successfully take today’s audience back in time to a two-century-old, not-so-merry England with their two-act drama. Some might consider this tale to be old-fashioned, melodramatic and creaky, while others may find this stage production powerfully breathes new life into one of the greatest novels in British literary history. As a fan of the Brontës’ impassioned fiction, this critic was delighted to reacquaint himself with one of literature’s most romantic pairings, Jane and Rochester, and to ponder the question that both Charlotte and Emily dared to ask in a society dominated by class and gender oppression: Against all odds and the walls of repression, can true love conquer all?
If you want to find out, go see A Noise Within’s Jane Eyre on Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., with 2:00 p.m. matinees on Sat. and Sun. through April 20 at 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena 91107. For info and tickets, go here or call (626) 356-3100. Free parking is in an adjacent garage.
FUN FACT OF THE REVIEW: Based on Jean Rhys’ 1966 novel, 1993’s NC-17 rated Wide Sargasso Sea is a steamy prequel about sexual obsession that imagines Edward Rochester’s love affair in Jamaica long before he encountered Jane at Thornfield manor. See here.
The play’s trailer can be viewed here.
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