JANE EYRE adapted by Polly Teale from the novel by Charlotte Brontë Directed by: Clive Stack Blackburn Drama Club What an appropriate play to have the pleasure of watching on International Women's Day! Once again, the theatre was pleasingly full (an ongoing testament to how well regarded and appreciated Blackburn Drama Club's productions are to the community) and I was met with a lovely warm welcome from Chairman and Publicity Manager, Paddy Darnell-Walsh, and Jenny Hodkinson's front of house team. Additionally, during the interval I was lucky to speak briefly to director Clive Stack and to explore a little with him which elements of the production were scripted, and which were down to his unique vision. This production could certainly be described as a dramatic performance piece rather than simply a period play, with Clive choosing to incorporate dancing and heavy synth-rock remixes of classical music to Polly Teale's fascinating script. This script explores Jane Eyre's inner world with the juxtaposition between the restrained expectations placed upon women in the time period (the time period occupied by Charlotte Brontë and her sisters) and their true inner nature filled with passion, joy, sensuality and despair at their repression. The music (written and performed by Pete Cobb with vocals by Clare Cobb and Hannah Cobb) kept the energy up throughout, although at times I wonder if, in what was already a particularly long play, it was not fully necessary for the whole song to play. An example of this was at the very start of the play where a beautiful song played to completion while Heather Roberts (who, although we did not know it yet, was playing Jane's inner self) was sat in the Red Room in the dark. While this could have been powerful had we as the audience known who she was and why she was there, instead it felt a little confusing to me sitting there with the urge for the production to start.
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