New stage adaptation of Jane Eyre comes to Stephen Joseph Theatre

A new stage version of Jane Eyre comes to Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre next month. Nick Ahad reports.
Rehearsals for Jane Eyre at the Stephen Joseph Theatre - Eleanor Sutton (left) and Sam Jenkins-Shaw. Picture: Tony BartholomewRehearsals for Jane Eyre at the Stephen Joseph Theatre - Eleanor Sutton (left) and Sam Jenkins-Shaw. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Rehearsals for Jane Eyre at the Stephen Joseph Theatre - Eleanor Sutton (left) and Sam Jenkins-Shaw. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Chris Bush is having quite a remarkable year. That would be the case were any of the playwright’s current projects on the slate, but to have the sheer number she is currently juggling is somewhat mind boggling.

“It’s all go. I’d say I am probably about twenty per cent too busy,” says Bush.

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The projects that make the writer busy by one-fifth, include a production of the Richard Hawley musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which has already been announced as Sheffield Crucible’s Christmas show this year, and a theatrically innovative trilogy of plays helping Sheffield celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Rehearsals for Jane Eyre - from left, Sarah Groarke, Tomi Ogbaro, Nia Gandhi, Zoe West (just seen), Sam Jenkins-Shaw, Eleanor Sutton. Picture: Tony BartholomewRehearsals for Jane Eyre - from left, Sarah Groarke, Tomi Ogbaro, Nia Gandhi, Zoe West (just seen), Sam Jenkins-Shaw, Eleanor Sutton. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Rehearsals for Jane Eyre - from left, Sarah Groarke, Tomi Ogbaro, Nia Gandhi, Zoe West (just seen), Sam Jenkins-Shaw, Eleanor Sutton. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Rock/Paper/Scissors are three plays, all written by the Sheffield-raised Bush, which will play simultaneously at Sheffield Theatre this summer, with all three plays sharing the same cast.

It’s a technical as much as an artistic feat, with the plays being performed at the Crucible, Studio and Sheffield Lyceum all at the same time.

We will, of course, return to that unique production at a later stage.

For now, Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre rehearsals - from left, Eleanor Sutton, Sam Jenkins-Shaw. Picture: Tony BartholomewJane Eyre rehearsals - from left, Eleanor Sutton, Sam Jenkins-Shaw. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Jane Eyre rehearsals - from left, Eleanor Sutton, Sam Jenkins-Shaw. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
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That’s right, as well as breaking the mould with Rock/Paper/Scissors and working with Richard Hawley on the musical named after the Steel City musician’s song, Bush is also adapting the Charlotte Brontë novel for the stage.

“I feel like I’ve always tried to not exist in one single genre,” says Bush, somewhat understating her current slate.

“I’ve always done musicals, straight plays, adaptations and big community shows and I really do feel privileged to be allowed to make such varied work. I suppose there is a sort of shared DNA between say something like Chalk Circle and Rock/Paper/Scissors simply because of the ambition and the scale of the piece.”

I forgot to mention Chalk Circle, or the Doncastrian Chalk Circle, a new version of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle which is being staged at Cast in Doncaster by the National Theatre as part of its public acts programme. The idea is to create a community musical on an epic scale with a cast of over 100 local performers alongside a professional company and live band. It’s easy to see why the calculation of being twenty percent too busy comes from.

Back to the Brontë.

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A co-production between Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre and the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Bush’s adaptation of Jane Eyre is the first novel she’s adapted.

“I’ll confess now, I hadn’t actually read the book when I was first asked about adapting it. It was totally new to me; although I think that was actually quite helpful ultimately because it meant that I didn’t bring any baggage with me or expectations.”

It’s certainly a novel that can come with both baggage and expectations. One of English literature’s great romantic novels, it is also considered one of the first in the canon to delve into the inner life of a Victorian woman, telling the story of the eponymous heroine from her life as a ten-year-old orphan to wife to Edward Rochester.

“It’s almost the opposite of the community plays I’ve written where it’s a case of ‘the more, the merrier’ and you have a cast of 200. With Jane Eyre I had a five, six hundred page book and I had to try do it in two hours with a cast of six. This is my first big book adaptation and my approach has been to be irreverent, but also finding a way to engage with the truth and the honesty of the story. I think there is such a lot of heart in the story.”

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Selling the piece, the marketing blurb tells us this is a ‘witty and fleet-footed adaptation that seeks to present Jane Eyre to a fresh audience while staying entirely true to the original’s revolutionary spirit. Using actor-musicians, playful multi-roling and a host of 19th century pop hits, this is an accessible new version of a literary masterpiece’.

Bush, who is an associate artist at Sheffield Theatres, references the Crucible’s recent production of Anna Karenina, which showed virtually no respect to the text, bringing a brilliant vibrancy to the original via Anthony Lau’s direction. “It’s not that. I loved that, but this is such a popular piece of work partly because of the period it just feels right to tell it as a period piece,” says Bush. “I’m not doing anything wild or whacky with it, it will sit within the period, the characters won’t be orbiting in space or anything like that.”

Given that often when stories like this appear on stage they can provide a vehicle for a director’s vision or are altered entirely to say something to a modern audience, it sounds like it is the kind of piece that will appeal to traditionalists – or at least those who are fans of stories simply being transplanted on to the stage. There was, however, one specific challenge Bush found with the adaptation.

“Normally when you are plotting out a character, you give them a journey and leave them transformed; by the end of the play they are a different person to who they were at the start. With Jane, you follow her life and obviously she grows up, but she doesn’t really change that much. She begins as an incredible and strong person and that doesn’t really alter, she stays that way,” says Bush. “One of the things that makes her who she is is that she has this incredibly strong code that she doesn’t veer from.”

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Even though it doesn’t present the opportunity to show a character go through a big transformation, as Bush would normally do, that’s not a worry to the playwright.

“There’s something really fascinating in showing someone with that strength.”

April 8-30. Tickets are now on sale and available through the theatre’s website www.sjt.uk.com or call the box office on 01723 370541.