Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 8, 2007 issue
The Acting Company Presents Jane Eyre at Farthing February 16
Story by Celeste von Mangan
The Acting Company, under the direction of Davis McCallum, will perform Polly Teale’s adaptation of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel, on Friday, February 16, at Farthing Auditorium at 8:00 p.m.
Jane Eyre recounts the story of strong-willed Jane as she defies society’s expectations of what a woman should be and how she should conduct herself. Orphaned in early childhood, Jane attends a strict boarding school before obtaining a position as governess for the dark, mysterious Mr. Rochester’s young child. She begins an intense romance with Rochester, who has a devastating secret that threatens their future.
Jane Eyre was a significant novel in many ways, not only because of Bronte’s look at the British class structure, the struggle between morality and self-gratification and the tension between love and independence, but also—and perhaps most significantly—because of her examination of gender roles. Relatively early in the book, Jane expresses what would have been considered a radical feminist philosophy for the mid-19th century:
“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”
Teale has adapted other classics for the page-to-stage genre including Anna Karenina, The Mill on the Floss and War and Peace. This adaptation is considered to be a groundbreaking one for Jane Eyre.
“The Acting Company is currently celebrating its 34th season,” said Sali Gill-Johnson, director of artists’ relations, “which in the performing arts business is quite remarkable! They have toured over 127 productions throughout the United Sates and abroad. The company has performed at Appalachian several times and always brings high-quality productions to the stage. We are happy to welcome them back to Boone with their new production of Jane Eyre. Like most good theater, it combines conflict, passion, romance, drama and suspense with believable characters who come to life on stage.”
The Acting Company was formed out of the first graduating class of the Julliard School’s Drama Division in 1972, and alumni include Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone. The company strives to make theater accessible to all.
Advance tickets for Jane Eyre are on sale now and cost $16 for adults, $14 for senior citizens, ASU faculty and staff and $8 for all students. Ticket prices increase at the door on the night of the performance. For tickets or information call 828-262-4046 or click to www.pas.appstate.edu. Jane Eyre is part of the 2006-07 Performing Arts Series, presented by ASU’s Office of Arts and Cultural Programs.
Currer Bell Is Charlotte Bronte
When Jane Eyre was published 160 years ago, the novel became a bestseller. Author Charlotte Bronte published under the pseudonym Currer Bell, and there was much speculation at the time as to whether the Bells were three persons, two persons or just one person, as her sisters Anne and Emily also published under the Bell surname. Anne used the name Acton Bell, while Emily used Ellis Bell. The sisters used these pseudonyms to hide their genders so they could publish and gain more favorable reviews. When the word got out that a woman had written such a passionate novel as Jane Eyre, the reviews became more negative, testifying to the gender-based expectations and mores of the day.
The Lonely Geniuses: The Bronte Family
Born in 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, an area known for its heaths, heather, rock crags and desolation, Charlotte Bronte was the third daughter of Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. Her mother died when she was five, at which time Charlotte’s maternal aunt, Elizabeth, moved in with the family. Elizabeth was a harsh woman, and the four youngest Bronte children—Charlotte, Emily, Anne and brother Branwell—created and wrote about fantasy lands called Angria and Gondal in part to escape their aunt’s heavy-handed ministrations. The Bronte children became known as the lonely geniuses, a moniker reserved primarily for Charlotte, Anne and Emily. Though a talented artist, Branwell became a drug-addicted alcoholic and the two eldest sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, died of consumption while still schoolgirls. The three surviving Bronte sisters all had novels published in 1847: Charlotte’s Jane Eyre; Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Anne’s Agnes Grey. Emily died the following year and Anne died the year after that. By 1849, all of Charlotte’s siblings were deceased. In 1854, Charlotte married her father’s curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, and died in pregnancy less than a year later at the age of 38. Because of their tragically short lives, the Brontes are remembered as much for being a doomed family living in isolation on the wild heather-strewn moors of Yorkshire as they are for creating literary masterpieces.
Want To Go?
Date: Friday, February 16
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Farthing Auditorium
Cost: $16 adults/$14 seniors and ASU faculty and staff/$8 students