Both of reviewers attend the recent production of Jane Eyre at Sale’s Waterside Theatre and although sat next to each other they both had a very different experience.
So here they both are
At the end of another very stressful day, surrounded by idiots, I took myself off to the Robert Bolt Theatre in Sale to watch a production of Jane Eyre. The theatre was quite small, the seats were a bit tatty and it was only about half full so it just added to the general downtrodden theme of my day.
Looking at the stage, I couldn’t quite figure out how this was all going to work as there was a piano, a couple of chairs, two benches that reminded me of my junior school gym lessons and a wooden structure with a few stairs. Mournful piano music was playing and then act one began with a piano sing song making me think I had walked into some sort of Victoriana Christmas carol production of Jane Eyre.
The start of the first act is all about Jane (Kelsey Shirt) and her two awful cousins as children (Eleanor Toms and Oliver Hamilton) and their evil mother, Jane’s Aunt Reed (Camilla Simpson). As the story unfolds, it did make me think that back in the day, life is so much harder and very cruel but it was all under-pinned by the sense of family duty. When Jane went to school and she was initially treated so harshly by the headmaster, the kindness of one of her teachers and her best friend, Helen Byrnes was enough to melt your heart. Then, when Jane turned up as the governess at the impressive manor, Thornfield, you could see what was going to happen straight away when the dark and moody Mr Rochester (Ben Warwick) entered stage left.
The overall production reminded me of the play “A Woman in Black” where there are very few characters, clever lighting and only a few props but they did manage to create vivid pictures of each of the places the play took us.
I am a little bit torn on whether a few more female actors would have helped instead of the same actors playing several different parts. It was very good that all of the actors could sing, play the piano and other instruments but there are few parts where it feels like the adults were messing about with a big dressing up box and making up the different characters. That said, there was a real spark between Jane and Mr Rochester but I am not sure if that spark should have been there as early as it was.
The second act takes us to the next chapter of Jane’s life when she runs away after she found out at the altar that Rochester was already married to Bertha. She is taken in by St John Rivers and his two sisters, Mary and Diana and up to this point, I hadn’t realised the sense of equality that Rochester was trying to create with Jane until I saw how St John, albeit kind, wanted a traditional and obedient wife. It did make me sad that Jane could only be allowed to be independent when she came into a huge fortune but it did make me realise how lucky we are today and whilst modern life is full-on, going back to the time when women didn’t even really have a say would be awful. I’ll take my stressful modern life surrounded by idiots any day of the week.
Overall, the acting was very good but the accents were a little odd at times, probably because the actors were all playing lots of different parts.,
The story did hold my attention from the start but it was such a shame that such a great production was only playing to a half full theatre. This is definitely a theatre that I will go back to, and although Jane Eyre has now finished, if this production is anything to go by, there will be some fantastic shows and plays to be seen.
Overall, it is a 3 out of 5 for me.
Amanda Padbury
Usually the Jane Eyres we see are vast elaborate productions but this performance was beautifully economically staged.
With little or no costume changes and a static set apart from a few benches and cloths this was a wonderful example of compact theatre with no smoke and mirrors to distract us from the story.
To put on a production of this type can only work if the actors are also multi talented which they all were, not only as polished characterful actors but as singers, musicians and almost dancers in the way they moved about the stage and around each other as the benches and cloths were utilised to good effect as we moved scenes.
I was a little confused initially that Jane appeared so petulant but then realised this was in an effort to play out her childhood years as an orphan living with relatives who quickly disowned her, sending her to the local orphanage to be ‘cared’ for.
I have nothing but admiration for Kelsy Shirt who gave us Jane as the living narrator of her own life dealing with the hand she had been dealt so stoically but with an underlying passion.
The other actors were just amazing, dipping in and out of accents and parts speedily and to subtly comic effect.
I think Charlotte Brontë would have been pleased with how this troupe had brought Jane Eyre to the stage perfectly in all her understated glory.
This is the first time I have been to the Robert Bolt Theatre at the Waterside and it is such a lovely space I wished I lived closer to it to take more advantage of some of the interesting looking plays and shows that are advertised for this season.
Debbie Barlow
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