Post by Elizabeth on Mar 27, 2009 20:47:26 GMT
Brontë
Role: Bertha Rochester and Catherine Earnshaw
Toured: 2005
Director: Polly Teale
Company: Shared Experience
Synopsis: As they don their costumes they assume the identities of Emily (Diane Beck), Charlotte (Fenella Woolgar) and Anne (Catherine Cusack). The characters move back and forth in time, creating their childhood fantasy worlds of Gondal and Angria with adored brother Branwell (Matthew Thomas), caring for their overbearing father Patrick (David Fielder), struggling to make their livings as governesses and working on their novels. The sisters are also haunted by Cathy Eamshaw, the mad Mrs Rochester (both played by Natalia Tena), Heathcliffe and Arthur Huntingdon (the drunken husband in Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall).
Reviews:
"Natalia Tena's Cathy is spinechillingly effective, but her Creole Mrs Rochester suffers from Teale's overuse of heavy-handed symbolism - do we really need the character's frequent appearances, usually crawling on her hands and knees, to grasp that the "madwoman in the attic" represents the repressed sexuality and anger of Victorian women?"- British Theatre Guide
"The relationship between the women and the imaginary worlds they created is very effectively conveyed because, as they write, we see their alter-ego (Natalia Tena) on stage who at various times also takes on the role of Cathy from Wuthering Heights and "mad" Bertha from Jane Eyre."- BBC Bradford
Role: Bertha Rochester and Catherine Earnshaw
Toured: 2005
Director: Polly Teale
Company: Shared Experience
Synopsis: As they don their costumes they assume the identities of Emily (Diane Beck), Charlotte (Fenella Woolgar) and Anne (Catherine Cusack). The characters move back and forth in time, creating their childhood fantasy worlds of Gondal and Angria with adored brother Branwell (Matthew Thomas), caring for their overbearing father Patrick (David Fielder), struggling to make their livings as governesses and working on their novels. The sisters are also haunted by Cathy Eamshaw, the mad Mrs Rochester (both played by Natalia Tena), Heathcliffe and Arthur Huntingdon (the drunken husband in Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall).
Reviews:
"Natalia Tena's Cathy is spinechillingly effective, but her Creole Mrs Rochester suffers from Teale's overuse of heavy-handed symbolism - do we really need the character's frequent appearances, usually crawling on her hands and knees, to grasp that the "madwoman in the attic" represents the repressed sexuality and anger of Victorian women?"- British Theatre Guide
"The relationship between the women and the imaginary worlds they created is very effectively conveyed because, as they write, we see their alter-ego (Natalia Tena) on stage who at various times also takes on the role of Cathy from Wuthering Heights and "mad" Bertha from Jane Eyre."- BBC Bradford
