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Brussels and Celtic Music
2008-04-26 12:48:00
The Brussels Brontë Blog posts a chronicle (with lots of nice pictures) of the recent Brussels Brontë Weekend. A total and spectacular success:After nearly 6 months of planning, organising and promoting our weekend, this year started off with a Brontë evening in Waterstone’s, the English bookshop in Brussels, who kindly provided a specially set-up space and provided drinks and nibbles. This was our test, to see how many would turn up to our event this time. We were actually quite surprised to see a great turn-out; some 60 people turned up, and some had to stand, as the chairs were all taken! (...)Saturday included a one-day conference entitled "The Brontë sisters in Brussels" organised by the public library Bibliothèque des Riches Claires, with assistance from us. This event was mainly down to them and so we had to wait and see how it would all go. (...)With still more people turning up for this day, the number of attendants was about 100. To our surprise the mayor of Brussel...
More About: Music , Celtic

Clouds Beyond Clouds
2008-04-26 00:05:00
That's the title of a point-and-click adventure game inspired by the Brontës that is the first project of Really Fancy Games:Time for a quick introduction to my current project, Clouds Beyond Clouds. The game is a point and click adventure based on the lives and works of the Brontë sisters. Set in a fictional West Yorkshire village, it’s a dark literary mystery in which fiction and history are blurred.The game is narrative-driven, being both a game about literature and a mystery story in itself, and is designed to reward exploration and create an immersive atmosphere. Roughly translated, this means that there’s lots to look at and you can’t die.I’m building the game using Flash and Lassie Adventure Studio, a Flash-based development tool for building adventure games. I’ll talk more about this in future posts, but for now suffice it to say that I’m very pleased with it and would happily recommend it to anyone who knows which end of Flash is which.On a more recent post t...

Behind the scenes at the Parsonage
2008-04-26 00:04:00
An alert from the Brontë Parsonage Museum for the next month:Chance to see behind the scenes at the Brontë Parsonage MuseumSpecial Tours of the Brontë Parsonage Museum – New for 20083 May and 24 May more dates to be announced shortlyGet a new view of the story of the Brontë Family and an opportunity to see behind the scenes. Your guide will try and give a special insight in to the lives of the Brontës, and an understanding why the inspire people still today. It is also the chance to question an expert. In addition the tour will culminate in a visit to the Parsonage Library and a chance to view as close quarters a selection of items from the Brontë Society’s collectionsFor the first time for many years we are able to offer the public a tour of the Brontë Parsonage Museum plus a look behind the scenes and a closer look at some treasures from the Society’s world famous collections.The tours are restricted to 12 people.9.45 meet your guide for a short introduction to the h...
More About: Behind The Scenes , Scenes

BrontëBlog readers review Daphne and The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Br
2008-04-25 19:48:00
Both our winners of the our latest contests (Justine Picardie's Daphne and Laura Joh Rowland's The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë) have been so kind to forward us their reviews. Furthermore, it seems that both of them have enjoyed their reads, therefore our delight is double.Christine from book-a-rama has published her Daphne review on her blog:Daphne by Justine Picardie is a little hard to describe. It's about a college grad researching Daphne duMaurier while she was researching Branwell Bronte. Are you following me? The narrator (who remains nameless until the end of her story), let's call her Nar, is married to a douche a professor much older than herself. Oh, he thinks he's right smart, he does. Nar loves all things Daphne and is working on a paper about her obsession with the Brontes. Paul, the professor, poo-poos the idea. Daphne is, afterall, just a writer of bestsellers, a romance writer. Paul and Nar grow colder towards one another and Nar suspects Paul's atti...
More About: Readers , Review , Blog

Comics for boys and fairytales for girls
2008-04-25 11:47:00
The Bradford Telegraph & Argus covers the cyprus pine tree souvenirs initiative by the Brontë Society. Check this previous post to know more details:Slices of literary history in the form of chippings from a tree planted by Charlotte Bronte more than 150 years ago are proving to be a money spinner.The author of Jane Eyre was said to have planted the tree when she got married in 1854, and early this year it had to be felled because its roots were dying and it risked becoming a danger to tourists visiting the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth.But custodians of Bronte heritage at the family's former home hit upon the idea of chopping up the felled tree and selling portions off to fans.So far they've raised more than £1,000 in just over a week, with one Bronte aficionado in the south of England pledging £100 for the specially-packaged piece of the Cyprus pine.Demand has also been flooding in from Bronte fans throughout the world, but the first to get his slice from Bronte Pars...
More About: Girls , Comics , Boys

Jane Eyre DVD in Spain
2008-04-25 00:04:00
Divisa Home Video has published Jane Eyre 2006 in Spain . The edition contains the same extras that the BBC edition (interviews, deleted scenes) but apparently includes also outtakes and camera tests.Jane Eyre2 DVDsDivisa Home Video (April 23, 2008)English and Spanish. Subtitles in Spanish.Extras:Deleted ScenesInterviewsOuttakesCamera TestsTrailersCategories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

Dorothy and Emily
2008-04-24 13:28:00
The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth by Frances Wilson and its Brontë similarities continue attracting the reviewers' attention. Margaret Drabble writes about it for The Times Literary Suplement: The Wordsworth walks were more Brontë than Austen, and Wilson uses Emily Brontë as a key to her understanding of brother and sister:"When I read Dorothy’s accounts of her love for William in the Grasmere Journals I am moved in the same way as I am by Catherine Earnshaw’s description of her love for Heathcliff . . . and it is through Wuthering Heights that the peculiarity of [their] relationship can best be understood. Powerful in both cases is the elusive, visionary nature of what each woman is straining to define, her hunger for twinship with the one she loves . . . her confusion about where she ends and he begins. "This comparison makes sense, and it connects with the idea of incest which F. W. Bateson so memorably introduced in 1954 when he suggested that William and Dorothy fell in ...

Wendy Bardsley talks about Branwell
2008-04-24 00:04:00
An interesting for today, April 24, in Harrogate. Wendy Bardsley, author of the recently published novel Branwell Brontë's Creation gives a talk. From the author herself:Yorkshire Post Literary Lunches are arranged by The Yorkshire Post and are held, normally, either at The Majestic Hotel or The Pavilions of Harrogate. AdmissionFor ticket prices, please contact Margaret BrownContact DetailsMargaret Brown, Tel 01423 772217I shall be speaking on Thursday, 24th April, at the Pavilions, with writers, Clare Francis and Ruth Brandon about my novel, Branwell Bronte's Creation.I shall talk about what inspired me to write it, how long it took me to write it, and my feelings in general about Branwell's role in the family. I have always been a lover of Bronte literature, and find the way they lived their lives in Haworth fascinating. For a long time now, I have wanted to write a novel about Branwell, who I feel has been misrepresented and given an unfair press over the la...

Brontë in Havant
2008-04-24 00:01:00
A new semi-professional production of Polly Teale's Brontë opens today, April 14, in Havant, Hampshire:BENCH THEATRE PRESENTSBRONTËBY POLLY TEALEDirected by Ingrid CorriganHavant Arts CentreThu 24 Apr – Sat 26 Apr& Tue 29 Apr – Sat 3 May 7.30pmBronte explores how three Victorian sisters living in isolation on the Yorkshire moors, came to write some of the most powerful and passionate fiction of all time. We see the real and imagined worlds of Charlotte, Emily and Anne as the fictional characters come to haunt their creators and how they are affected by their brother Branwell’s descent into alcoholism and insanity. The play was first performed by Shared Experience Theatre Company in 2005 and is written by award-winning writer and director,Polly Teale.£7.50, £5 concs.Bench Members and Backbenchers FREE.Special Offer: 2 for 1 on Apr 24 & Apr 29Picture source and complete flyer of the production.Categories: Theatre

Cyprus Pine Tree souvenirs
2008-04-23 16:21:00
Remember this sad story? Now the Brontë Parsonage Blog posts about something which BrontëBlog is waiting to arrive in the mail soon:There has been a rush to get hold of a slice of a tree said to be planted by Charlotte Brontë as part of her wedding celebrations in 1854. The tree unfortunately had to be felled in January as it had become unsafe.The trunk is to be made into a sculpture but a limited amount of the wood from the smaller branches has been sliced up and packaged as a limited edition souvenir.Members have been asked to donate money to the Brontë Society’s conservation fund in return for the package of history and have responded remarkably: in just over a week a thousand pounds has been raised to support the care and conservation of the Society’s collection of Brontë objects.The limited edition packs have been offered initially to members of the Brontë Society in return for a donation of five pounds or more to the charity. Donations have been flooding in from arou...
More About: Cyprus , Tree

"Sad stories make good books"
2008-04-23 15:32:00
Two allusions to Wuthering Heights in the press today. One very common, the other not so much. Let's look at the more unusual first. From The Independent: Dear Dr Wordsmith, What about Wuthering Heights? You never heard "wuthering" outside the title of the book. And what about the play by Goldsmith called She Stoops to Conquer? If a play were written with such a title today, we would assume it was about a very tall woman, or one with some disability. But I seem to remember that the word "stoop" is in fact a technical term from falconry and means to dive from a great height, or something. Falconry is all but dead, and so is that meaning, but there it lives on in a play title. I wonder if other readers have examples of book titles which perpetuate a dead meaning.Dr Wordsmith writes: I feel dreadfully sure they do. (Miles Kington)We couldn't say for a fact but we think people in the Haworth area might still be using the word 'wuthering', which is what the wind precisely does in tha...
More About: Books , Stories , Make , Good

Win a Jane Eyre audiobook!
2008-04-23 00:05:00
Blackstone Audio have generously provided us with an extra Jane Eyre audiobook read by Juliet Mills to give away to one of our readers.To enter you only have to answer the following question:According to Mary Taylor with which accent did Charlotte speak?The answer must be sent to our e-mail address: bronteblog (AT) gmail (DOT) com (read that aloud if that doesn't look like an e-mail address to you). Answers will be accepted until April 30 (12 am CET). Winners will be notified by e-mail on the ensuing days. We will accept ONE ANSWER ONLY per participant.Good luck everyone!Categories: Audio-Radio, Contest, Jane Eyre
More About: Audiobook

Jane Eyre in St. Ives
2008-04-23 00:01:00
Today, April 23, a new amateur production of Gordon & Caird's musical setting of Jane Eyre opens in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire:"Jane Eyre - A Musical Drama"SIMADSSt. Ives Music and Drama Society23rd - 26th April 2008Time: 7.30pm with Saturday matineee at 2pmPrice: £10, £8 concessionsThe Burgess Hall, St. Ives, Cambs.The Huntingdon Town Crier has some more information:This month the ever-popular St Ives Musical Amateur Dramatic Society (SIMADS) will stage a musical adaptation of the much-loved classical novel by Charlotte Bronte - 'Jane Eyre'.The production, which will take place at the St Ivo Recreation Centre in the Burgess Hall, St Ives, from April 23 to April 28, is a dramatic first in East Anglia and has been adapted in a style not wholly dissimilar to 'Les Miserables'.A spokesperson for SIMADS said the production is the most challenging undertaken by the society with a completely new approach to staging, lighting and sound.However, everyone involved is proud, excited a...

You really get a feel for those ladies
2008-04-22 16:45:00
The Evening Leader reviews last Friday's Patricia Hruby Powell's performance of A Time with Jane Austen, Emily Brontë & Emily Dickinson in Celina, Ohio:The College Community Arts Council (CCAC) brought artist Patricia Hruby Powell to the area for a week where she performed for local elementary school students in Auglaize and Mercer counties. Acting as Artist in Residence, Powell shared the power of story telling with the students. During her week in the area, Powell also presented a portrayal of 19th century women writers, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson to the public. In each vignette, Powell gave the women authors life and breath with her portrayal. In the one woman show, Powell used the vignettes of each writer to explain the struggles and triumphs of women of the Victorian era.Friday, she presented “A Time with Jane Austen, Emily Bronte & Emily Dickinson� to the Junior Scholar’s Program at the Wright State University Lake Campus in Celina. (...)He...
More About: Ladies , Feel

Between Women and Music
2008-04-22 00:05:00
More recent scholar books with Villette relevant mentions:Between Women : Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian EnglandSharon MarcusPrinceton University PressISBN-10: 0691128359 (paperback)ISBN-13: 978-0691128351 (paperback)ISBN-10: 0691128200 (hardback)ISBN-13: 978-0691128207 (hardback)Women in Victorian England wore jewelry made from each other's hair and wrote poems celebrating decades of friendship. They pored over magazines that described the dangerous pleasures of corporal punishment. A few had sexual relationships with each other, exchanged rings and vows, willed each other property, and lived together in long-term partnerships described as marriages. But, as Sharon Marcus shows, these women were not seen as gender outlaws. Their desires were fanned by consumer culture, and their friendships and unions were accepted and even encouraged by family, society, and church. Far from being sexless angels defined only by male desires, Victorian women openly enjoyed looking at ...
More About: Music

The dense Brontë manuscripts
2008-04-21 13:39:00
Hardly a day goes by when we don't discover just how many people have been inspired by the Brontës. The New York Times brings to our attention - in an article about something else - one more Brontë-related work: Mr. [Arthur] Bicknell, who was 32 at the time and had written a couple of scripts — including “Masterpieces,� a historical drama about the Brontë family — said he had become aware early that there were problems with the play, and the production. (Campbell Robertson)A couple of articles from the Financial Times. Firstly, a review of the Writers' Rooms exhibition which closed a few days ago in London. Even more claustrophobic is the "Brontë dining room, Haworth": the strict verticals of the patterned wallpaper set against the rigorous horizontals - table, mantelpiece, bookshelves - recall the dense Brontë manuscripts, economically covered in tiny script, written both across and downwards, in superimposed layers. (Jackie Wullschlager)You can see the painting here...

Charlotte Brontë still has genius after 192 years
2008-04-21 00:05:00
What best to celebrate Charlotte Brontë's birthday than to confirm how her work still influences artists, playwrights, writers... since her birth on a day like today in 1816.A few days ago we listened to Judith Adams's radioplay I Believe I Have Genius on BBC 4 (available online until next Thursday) and were very pleasantly surprised. The Brussels period was key to Charlotte's development as a writer although it sometimes is glossed over as a mere continental whim. Judith Adams showed just how powerful and influential it actually is by literally placing us inside Charlotte's mind.As the radioplay cast advanced Charlotte is divided in two: Reason and Passion, the conventional and the unconventional sides of Charlotte respectively. Between them they recall the incidents, events, etc. that landed her (them?) where she now is - now being a Catholic confessional in Brussels. Charlotte is extremely lonely and he love and anguish for M. Heger grows and grows. In a rather cruel twist o...
More About: Years

A governess would spell Haworth right
2008-04-20 12:16:00
Let's begin with a couple of reviews of Other People's Daughters by Ruth Brandon. The first one by The Independent:Not even Charlotte Brontë's most famous heroine had a story to match the tangled lives of these real-life governesses. (...)Charlotte Brontë, creator of one of fiction's most famous governesses, Jane Eyre, was herself one, and pressed the experience into fierce creative service. But, as Ruth Brandon compellingly describes in Other People's Daughters, the plain facts were as dramatic and often more traumatic. (Salley Vickers)And The Telegraph: Nineteenth-century novels that contain one of these troubled creatures form a genre of their own (think of The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, The Eustace Diamonds).Mrs Pryor, the governess in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley, realised that men saw her as 'a tabooed woman' to whom 'they were interdicted from granting the usual privileges of the sex', and it is this taboo which fascinates Brandon. A tabooed subject,...
More About: Spell

An April Sunday Walk
2008-04-20 00:05:00
A Brontë-related walk for an April Sunday :Hathersage CircularClimb up onto Stanage Edge for magnificent views of the cottage with Bronte connections. (North Lees Hall)Date: Sunday 20 April 2008Public transport: Bus, TrainSuitable for: Experienced Walk ersMap reference: SK 233 810Start time: 11:00End time: 16:00Walk length: Between 5 and 10 milesBooking required: YesBooking details: Phone 01629 816593Stanage EdgeWhere do I start? Hathersage Railway StationWhat’s the distance and terrain? 10 miles with steep climbs and rocky edges.What do I need to bring? Lunch, drinks and suitable clothing and footwear. Waterproof and warm clothing are also required.How do I get there? Trains from Sheffield and Manchester on the Hope Valley Line. Buses from Sheffield and Chesterfield.More information and pictures here.Picture Source.Categories: Alert, Brontëana

The Brontës are 'dude-safe' too
2008-04-19 12:48:00
Jeanette Winterson writes in The Times about crime fiction and recalls her personal experience with Jane Eyre that later became part of her novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (and eventually of a song by Los Campesinos!):My mother never recovered from the fact that Jane Eyre doesn't marry St John Rivers, and to cushion me from a similar cardiac disappointment, she altered the end, so that when she read it to me, she simply carried on turning the pages, but making it up as she went along. I have to say it was a shock of a different kind when I read Jane Eyre for myself, but it was one of the things that taught me how to be a writer. Just make it up, and if it has been written already - make it up some more.The Scotsman interviews John Hurt (who is/was/could be attached to the Brontë biopic project) and he remembers a Laurence Olivier anecdote. No mention to the aforementioned picture."I remember talking to Olivier when we were doing Lear," he says in that grand, gravelly voice th...
More About: Dude , Safe

Mortality and Methodism
2008-04-19 00:40:00
A couple of Brontë-related scholar books that we have discovered through the latest issue of Brontë Studies:The Treatment of the Themes of Mortality in the Poetry of the Brontë SistersYana Atanasova RowlandPlovdiv University Press, 2006 (Plovdiv, Bulgaria)361 ppISBN(10) 954-423-362-8ISBN(13) 978-954-423-362-8From the Brontë Studies's review:Throughout the monograph, Rowland applies to her reading of the Brontës' poetry a theoretical/philosophical paradigm, comprising ideas from Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida and Bakhtin, in order to explicate their 'common existential problem'. The Brontës' 'literary infatuation with mortality' therefore 'discloses their ontological growth' (p. 4), and is also an important 'hermeneutical tool' for interpreting existence. (Susan Bauman)Biblical Religion and the Novel, 1700–2000Mark Knight and Thomas WoodmanISBN: 0 7546 5117 7ISBN-13 978-0-7546-5117-8Publication Date: 07/2006Number of Pages: 170 pagesThe novel has been called 'the one...

Cats and Moors
2008-04-18 13:44:00
The South-Town Star reviews the Remy Bumppo's performances of Polly Teale's Brontë in Chicago. The reviewer didn't enjoy the show:How did women who lived sexless lives end up writing the steamy and passionate "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre"?If one is expecting an answer from the American premiere of "Bronte," playing at Remy Bumppo Theatre in Chicago, one will be sorely disappointed.Written by Polly Teale, this limp and lumbering work lacks dramatic insight into the lives of the spinster novelists who lived in the English moors in the 19th century.The father (Patrick Clear) of the three Bronte sisters -Charlotte (Susan Shunk), Emily (Carrie A. Coon) and Anne (Rachel Sondag) - was born into an illiterate Irish family but became self-educated and went on to college.Because he was transformed by literature, the Bronte patriarch encouraged his daughters to read in a time when women were far removed from such intellectual pursuits.The sister's brother, Branwell (Gregory Anderson...
More About: Cats

Rambling with Daphne
2008-04-18 00:06:00
Two alerts related with the Brontë Parsonage Museum and/or Haworth: Justine Picardie presenting Daphne at the BPM:On Friday 18 April
 at 7.30pm, at the Parsonage, Justine Picardie will be reading from her new novel Daphne and discussing the Brontës and Daphne Du Maurier with Du Maurier's eldest daughter Lady Tessa Montgomery.This event includes champagne
and canapes and a special opportunity to view rarely seen Branwell
 Brontë manuscripts once owned by Du Maurier. £10 - Tickets in advance (£10) from jenna.holmes@ bronte.org. uk/
And a new Brontë-related airing on BBC Radio 4 today, April 18. From the Brontë Parsonage Blog:On Friday 18 April at 15:00 BSTRambling s - Clare Balding explores routes with connections to the past.She strides out across the moors behind Haworth in the footsteps of the Brontës with Ann Dinsdale and Judith Bland. They intend to walk to Top Withins, thought to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights, but they wander a little off course an...

Brontë Weekend in Brussels
2008-04-18 00:05:00
As we reported, the Brussels Brontë Group is organizing a Brontë Weekend in Brussels with several interesting activities:Friday 18 April to Sunday 20 April 2008PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME This programme may be subject to changeAll events are open to non-members.Friday 18 April19.00: A BRONTË EVENING led by Robert Barnard in Waterstone's bookshop, Bvd. Adolphe Maxlaan 71-75, 1000 Brussels:We have invited a group of writers on the Brontës to meet you in Waterstone's and share their enthusiasm with you. Why are the Brontës still so popular today all over the world? How important was Charlotte Brontë's time in Brussels for her life and work? What does the Brontë Society do? This is your opportunity to ask a group of experts these and any other questions you would like to hear discussed.There will also be a display of Brontë-related books.There will be an introductory talk by Robert Barnard, former Chairman of the Brontë Society, who will be one of the speakers at the Brontë Confe...

Why Charlotte Brontë didn't fall in love with the Mannekin Pis
2008-04-17 17:12:00
The Guardian chooses Judith Adams's I Believe I Have Genius as the radio pick of today (check this previous post for more detailed information):In 1842, Charlotte Brontë, as poor, plain and obscure as the heroines of her novels, arrived at a girls' school in Brussels with her sister Emily. The women planned simply to complete their studies in return for giving English and music lessons, so they could return to Britain to start a school of their own. But Charlotte fell in love - not with waffles, moules frites or the Mannekin Pis, but her charismatic (and married) teacher Constantin Heger.This much is well known, and the fact that Elizabeth Gaskell airbrushed the affair out of her biography has given it extra spice. But what is less well known is that Heger used Charlotte's devotion to him to encourage her writing. That's the story of Judith Adams's play I Believe I Have Genius (2.15pm, Radio 4), which draws on Brontë's own letters. (Phil Daoust)The Times presents this radio ...
More About: Love , Fall

New Brontë OUPs
2008-04-17 00:05:00
New Brontë titles in the Oxford University Press catalogue. A new edition and some new covers:The Tenant of Wildfell HallNew EditionEdited by Herbert RosengartenIntroduction by Josephine McDonaghPrice: £6.99 (Paperback)ISBN-13: 978-0-19-920755-8Publication date: 17 April 2008496 pages, 196x129 mmSeries: Oxford World's ClassicsDescription* A new edition of Anne Brontë's compelling novel about the destructive consequences of alcoholism on a marriage, featuring a wide-ranging new introduction, and up-to-date editorial material.* New, wide-ranging introduction by Josephine McDonagh examines the intellectual and cultural context of the novel, its complex narrative structure and the contemporary moral and medical debates about alcohol and the body with which the novel engages.* Reprints the authoritative Clarendon text in improved typesetting.* Improved chronology* Up-to-date bibliography* Additional notes draw attention to the novel's use of contemporary medical publications on the...

Jane Eyre in Downton
2008-04-17 00:01:00
A reminder of the Jane Eyre amateur production which is being staged by Downton Drama Company and Downton Academy of Dramatic Art (DADA) at the Trafalgar School's drama studio (Downton, Wiltshire) from April 17 to April 19.More information on this previous post.Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre

The morals of Heathcliff and Rochester
2008-04-16 14:38:00
The Muskogee Phoenix reviews The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (check these previous posts) and concludes that it has some things in common with the Brontës' works:Actually, what Meyer has written is akin to Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice� or “Wuthering Heights� with a sexy, vampire Heathcliff , or Edward that is, who has morals. Ostensibly about vampires, the real underlying themes seem to be teen abstinence, overcoming prejudice, developing integrity, and, of course, true love. (Melony Carey)The writer has a point - Rochester 's behaviour is more conventional and "moral" than Heathcliff's - but still we are surprised to see Rochester's morals mentioned again.And now for some interesting things from a few blogs. One Day More writes a post on social commentaries in Jane Eyre. And Sneak Preview comes across a Jane Eyre reference in Dr. Paffenroth’s Orpheus and the Pearl:Catherine was exhausted, but too restless to sleep, so she drew all the curtains and settled herse...
More About: Morals

I Believe I Have Genius on BBC Radio 4
2008-04-16 00:06:00
Tomorrow, April 17, BBC Radio 4 will air I Believe I Have Genius , a radio play by Judith Adams based on the writings and letters of Charlotte Brontë describing her stay in Brussels and her experiences. The play will be available on line for a week after airing.Thursday, 17th April 20082:15 PM - 3:00 PMBBC- Radio 4 Afternoon Play: I Believe I Have GeniusBy Judith AdamsWhat really happened when Charlotte Brontë - as poor, obscure, plain and little as the heroines of her later novels - travelled to Brussels to study at a girls’ school as confessed by the author herself, and built around her own writings and letters.Charlotte Brontë 1, Or Reason ..... Laura MolyneuxCharlotte Brontë 2, Or Passion ..... Rosie CavalieroConstantin Heger ..... Julian Rhind-TuttPriest ..... David Shaw-ParkerChappelle ..... Mark MeadowsMme Heger ..... Elaine ClaxtonMary Taylor ..... Anne-Marie PiazzaProducer/director Jonquil Panting.The summary of the play can be read on Judith Adams's website:On a warm...

Jane Eyre by The Company of Ten
2008-04-16 00:03:00
A new amateur production of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre opens today, April 16, in St. Albans, Hertforshire, UK:The Company of Ten presentsJane Eyre16th-26th April 2008, 8:00 pmThe Abbey TheatreWestminster LodgeHolywell Hill, St. AlbansHerts. AL1 2DL.The Passionate Quest Jane, a penniless orphan, is left in the care of her vicious and unsympathetic Aunt Reed. Her defiant spirit is roused by her harsh treatment, and a passionate outburst leads to her consignment to a grim boarding school. Her determination enables her to become a teacher. Eventually she moves away to become a governess to the ward of the rich brooding owner of Thornfield Hall.Mr Rochester, dark and sardonic, is fascinated by Jane's sharp wit and independence, and they fall in love. Violent events and dark secrets stand in the way of their union but the eventual resolution is as beautiful as it is unexpected.Polly Teale's dramatisation has liberated Jane Eyre in a way that Charlotte Brontë could not. Her most inspired ...