Writer: Polly Teale
Director: Nettie Sheridan
Assistant Director: Esme Bird
Reviewer: Lela Tredwell
A thoroughly engaging, thought-provoking, and accomplished production that explores the lives and imaginations of the Brontë sisters: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. At the time the siblings were writing, it would be fair to say the subject of three spinsters living impoverished in a parsonage, along with their emotionally absent father and alcoholic brother, wouldn’t have made it into a lot of theatre productions. Thankfully, times have changed. This exceptional performance reminds us how hard life was for women in the Brontës’ position while giving us new insight into these talented women living during the first half of the 19th Century.
The play opens on what is seemingly the modern day. One of the actors crosses the stage carrying a bright pink water bottle that she places on a shelf. It’s jarring. The set is so suggestive of another era. Lois Regan (Anne Brontë), Joanna Ackroyd (Charlotte Brontë), and Polly Jones (Emily Brontë) then dress in clothes more suitable for the 19th Century and transform. It’s hard to fathom why the start of the play has been created this way, as it seems unnecessary, but thankfully we rapidly move into the world of the Brontë sisters.
The vast majority of the play is set in the Brontë’s modest home, The Parsonage in Haworth. The set is very well considered with the main table, where the sisters communally write their words, fittingly taking pride of place. This is a complex play that skips across time, and seemingly dimensions, and demands the portrayal of numerous characters portioned out across its six actors, but they manage to make it look effortless. This production has been brilliantly cast, with all the actors of the Brontë family doing an exceptional job of embodying their own roles in the family. Joanna Ackroyd as Charlotte is outstanding. Polly Jones and Lois Regan, playing Emily and Anne retrospectively, also brilliantly bring their sisters to life. Steven Adams and Joseph Bentley both have their work cut out for them playing all the male characters between them, but both do so exceptionally well.
It’s a treat to see their fictional characters come to life around the sisters. Fittingly paired, the fictional Catherine Earnshaw and Bertha Rochester are both passionately recreated by Ella Jay Morley. This draws interesting comparisons between the two characters and the way Charlotte and Emily approached the wild. However, some of the dance sequences are laid on rather more heavily than necessary, as the performances of the sisters (Ackroyd and Jones) convey much in the way of their fears and hidden desires.
Charlotte (Ackroyd), Emily (Jones), and Lois (Regan) step in and out of their characters, sometimes addressing the audience to give insights or another perspective. The Brontë sisters’ real words are used through letters and diary entries, as well as their fiction, to give insight into their individual states of mind. There is also a collective mind which is movingly addressed through physical theatre. The bonds between the siblings are carefully created, and the way the family is haunted by tragedy is effectively explored.
This play delves us further into how these three isolated women created the passionate literature for which they are so famous, and encourages us to speculate upon why they felt compelled to do so. It’s brilliantly accomplished, engaging throughout, and a worthy homage to the legacy of this highly talented trio of women. It’s a must-see.
Reviewed on the 26th May.
