This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
Jane Eyre
National Theatre/YouTube
YOUTUBE isn’t often where I go for theatre but the oddness of this particular moment produces strange bedfellows.
In a bid to keep us theatrically entertained, the National Theatre has been streaming productions from its NTLive catalogue and the current offering is Jane Eyre, an adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel devised by director Sally Cookson and the cast a few years ago.
It is quite the novel to adapt but the production is highly effective in retaining its emotional realism by embracing its heightened and fantastical elements, with Cookson making excellent use of movement to propel us through time and space as well as to create atmosphere.
The narrative moves swiftly but effectively through Jane’s awful home and school life, before slowing down when we get to Thornfield Hall, the home of Mr Rochester, who has hidden his insane wife away in the attic.
Contemporary critics of the novel have questioned the apparent silencing of Bertha (Melanie Marshall) but Cookson’s production puts Bertha onstage and, through music, gives her a voice. It’s a highly effective technique.
Indeed, music is deployed effectively throughout, from moody soundscapes to English folk melodies and a remarkably moving version of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.
In a strong ensemble, the ever-pleasing Laura Elphinstone does a wonderful job as a range of characters from Jane's school friend Helen Burns to St John Rivers who, in his icy embrace of principle over passion, is a foil to Rochester.
Madeleine Worrall as Jane Eyre and Felix King as Rochester conjure a remarkable electricity in their portrayals of these two unique literary characters.
Watching live-streamed drama is an unusual experience. There’s the pleasure of watching theatre — after all, it’s been a while — but the screen is an odd barrier.
That said, this production is filmed well, using enough long shots to remind us that we’re in a theatre and allowing us see the full scale and scope of Michael Vale’s majestic stripped-down set, while close-ups create an intimacy perhaps lacking in a large-scale production on stage.
Runs until until April 16 on YouTube, youtube.com/watch?v=mO0CXV0zEAQ
