Writer: Eleanor Zeal
Director: Danielle Arkwright
Not really a convention at all, but Jane Eyre done quickly. And unfortunately, even though the show lasts barely an hour, not quickly enough. Four Charlotte Brontë stans, donned in bonnets and frocks, meet to enact the famous story of Jane and her relationship with gruff Mr Rochester. The premise may sound promising, but it’s undone by some very unfunny jokes and poor character development.
Welcoming the delegates with lanyards and Brontë biscuits, Prof Jane, Jeff Jane and Charlotte Jane begin proceedings only to be interrupted by a latecomer, Jane Air, who knows nothing of the book at all and is only there because her name is almost the same as the titular heroine. This new arrival is brought on stage to help with the retelling.
Writer Eleanor Zeal plays Prof Jane, the slightly bossy chairman of the society. Ben Everett Riley is Jeff Jane, who still smarts from his father’s many absences when he was growing up. Charlotte Jane, whose parents are from Jamaica, is played by Georgia Jackson, while Rachel Overd is Jane Air, who confides early, much too early, that her boyfriend is abusive.
With such a title, the show surely will attract audiences who are well aware of the identity of the woman in the attic and the subsequent postcolonial readings of the Gothic novel. But the cast does nothing new with these ideas, and Charlotte Jane, eager to highlight the racism within the novel, comes across as overly earnest, a bit of a killjoy. With an unnecessary joke about dyslexia and a panic attack scene involving a Gregg’s paper bag, Jane Eyre Convention struggles to find the right tone.
The actors try their best, but the script is thin, the slapstick heavy-handed, and the backstories insultingly weak. Of course, they are acting as amateurs, but even amateurs who love the source material as much as these people apparently do would have better ideas. Brontë deserves better.
Runs until 13 June 2026
