♪ The mountains stand before me the rivers running wild
the wind it howls
the rain it falls
upon this orphan child. ♪
Sally’s original hunch, and the reason
for wanting to tell the story at an epic scale,
was an instinct that it should be the life story
and not just the love story.
That the character only made sense
if you could really feel
where the character came from
before she met Rochester,
and how that continuity of her life was present
even during the love story of Rochester.
The focus on individual human rights
is what really appeals to me about the book.
Jane Eyre really understands
the fundamental necessity of needing certain things
in order to thrive
and live a good life.
And she understands that from a very early age.
I mean that's what is so appealing about the book now.
That we can still relate to women wanting
to be allowed to live the life that they want to live.
It can appeal to everyone, because it’s about
what we need we need, in order to get the most out of life.
Sally felt, the title of the book
is Jane Eyre An Autobiography,
and she right from the beginning made it very clear,
that she thought the childhood
should be a really important element.
I don’t see how you can read Jane Eyre
and get to know it
and not be pushed over backwards
by the strength and force of Jane.
That rage she feels.
Her constant questioning of why
she is being subjected to certain kinds of treatment.
It felt absolutely imperative to give her that strength
otherwise she is just someone that things happen to
and she is pushing her life forward at every turn.
She is an extraordinarily propulsive character and...
As we said,
I think you brought a lot of yourself into Jane.
In a good way.
That’s a complement.
Well...
Bossy!
But there is an awful lot of power,
and there is an awful lot of,
directness in Jane.
Which you've got.
Which I think is a brilliant thing.
And you brought that into the room,
on day one of rehearsal.
We don’t have a concrete script
to start our rehearsal process off really.
What we do have is
a very basic skeletal structure,
of scene titles,
where the interval was going to be,
and how it was going to end.
That was what we brought into rehearsals
and from that structure,
everything else was born out of that.
The thing about devising a show
is that you don’t know where you are going
when you start.
We didn’t have a script,
we didn’t have a set,
so we started with the novel,
and then at the end of the six week,
eight week rehearsal we had the first time round,
we had a show.
There is a lot of improvisation.
But actually,
we then returned to the novel
and go, actually you know what
she’s got this really right.
The words here,
this little couplet of
back and forth between the two of them
is so perfect.
And then you know, there are bits that are ours.
The bits where the real sort of
emotional intensity come,
the real crunch points,
the dialogue we are using is almost
I think without exception Charlotte Bronte’s,
because it’s, as everyone knows
it’s just beautiful
and it’s dramatically brilliant.
Have you been making enquiries
regarding my future position?
I have not been neglecting my duties
you on the other hand have.
Adele is running rings around Mrs Fairfax,
and is being a damned nuisance.
Go on up to the house.
Well go on.
Sir.
I think that both characters
have a kind of sense of damage
in their lives, and
Rochester certainly, has a sense of darkness
and a sense of self hatred.
And which he, sort of takes out
on the world around him.
And that comes across through this very acerbic,
often very funny,
but always in a cutting and a sharp way.
And I think that part of his appeal for Jane
is the fact that he forgets
that she is from a class different from his.
He sees her as an individual that he can
begin to spar with.
And I think that's fascinating
when he begins to feel that happening between them.
And see that she’s not going to be squashed.
And that lovely line that she has
when she says, “No Sir, I am not afraid”.
Yeah and it’s like...(!)