The Genesian Theatre has just opened its latest production JANE EYRE, a stage adaptation by Ali Bendall of the classic Charlotte Bronte novel . Bendall has directed the play herself.
This is the Genesian’s last production to be staged at their long standing venue at 420 Kent Street before its move to its new purpose built theatre in Rozelle.
Bronte’s story charts the journey of Jane Eyre who we first meet as a poor, plain but intelligent and strong willed girl.
Orphaned as a baby, Jane struggles through her loveless childhood, bullied by her auntie, Aunt Reed, and is sent off to Lowood School, an institute for orphans. Jane becomes an educated but restricted lady of Victorian society.
Finally advocating for herself she becomes a governor at Thornfield Hall where she begins to truly live.
It is there that she meets a man who may be able to match her spirit, the brooding Mr Edward Rochester. There is chemistry between them which has the potential to bridge the huge gap in their social status, Mr Rochester however holds a dark secret which puts any chance for any intimacy in jeopardy.
Bronte’s novel was written in the first person with Jane Eyre addressing the reader as dear reader. In adapting the novel for the stage, Bendall has Eyre regularly address the audience with her ughts as she is determined to live her life as an independent, thinking woman who is treated the same as any man. This was a very radical ambition for a woman to have, considering that Bronte’s novel was publishes in 1847, and that Bronte had to publish her novel under a female pseudonym, Currer Bell. Many early feminist writers chose to use male pseudonyms. Another example was the writer Amantine Lucille Aurore Dupin (1804-1876) who was another important writer who wrote under the male pseudonym, George Sand.
This is the second, very feminist work I have seen recently. I saw the lyrical, very emotional Italian film THERE’S STILL TOMORROW, co-written, directed and starring Paolo Cortellesi, who was inspired to make the film after what her grandmother and great grandmother went through in postwar 1940s Italy, at a time when women lived very subservient lives to their male partners and even had to push against them just to vote in government elections.
There’s something irresistibly appealing about following a narrative where the leading character is intent on leading an independent, fulfilling life and defeats many obstacles. Joseph Campbell called it ‘The Hero’s Journey’. Jane’s main dragon that she has to slay is not giving in to the sexist society she lived in, and to hve as an equal.
Kyra Belford-Thomas gives a good performance as the likable, articulate Jane and develops a good rapport with the audience. Vincent Andriano was slow to start but got in to the zone as Edward Rochester who has his own fraught journey to go through.
These were the play’s two main characters. Most of the supporting cast played multiple roles.The performers I enjoyed the most were Jenny Jacobs as Mrs Scatchred and the kindly Mrs Fairfax, Julia Grace as the vivacious Adele with her ballet leaps, Rhiannon Jean as Blanche Ingram and mad woman, Bertha Mason, Roslyn Hicks as the viperous Aunt Reed and Grace Poole and Simeon Casey as the kindly, conservative clergyman St John Eyre Rivers who develops feelings for Jane.
There’s a lot of good stagecraft that is on display that added so much to the experience of the show. All areas of the performance space are used – The audience can see the back wall of the theatre with its own stained glass windows. This opens the space more, and allowed for Ali Bendall and Tom Fahy’s finely detailed, multi leveled set which the cast appeared very comfortable moving around in.
An edgy, varied soundtrack, designed by Bendall and Cian Byrne, felt ever present, and was not lost as some too subtle sound designs are. Byrne is also credited with the complex lighting design which cued audiences as Jane moved between different situations during her odyssey.
Susan Carveth, whose costume designs have featured in so many Genesian productions over the years, once again dresses the cast in appropriate period costumes.
A strand of humour was woven through the play which reached it height when Jane and Rochester playfully argue over how much money he is to give her for her trip away.
My show highlight lay in a director’s touch. Upstage right, we saw two indistinct cast members tenderly place a wedding gown over Jane’s garb, and then, at the very same spot, after Jane’s disappointment, we see them tenderly take the gown off her. Just lovely.
In the program it is written that it was a twelve week period between the audition and the stage preview and that there were some 24 rehearsals. It again shows the amazing commitment that takes place within the world of community theatre.
This JANE EYRE has clearly been a passion project for Ali Bendall and her team. Bendall first read the book when she was around and Jane’s strong will ‘I am no bird and no net ensnares.’
This JANE EYRE has clearly been a passion project for Ali Bendall and her team. Bendall first read the book when she was around and Jane’s strong will ‘I am no bird and no net ensnares me…I am a free human being with an independent will.’ It is this team’s commitment and which augurs well for Genesian’s as they move to their new home, a purpose built 120 seat theatre in Rozelle which has been fashioned out of an old community hall, in January 2025.
