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Adapted and directed by Makki Marseilles
Music composed by Nikos Kondos
Costumes / Hats / Make-up by Kim
O'Neill
First
performance : 26 Nov. 1995
Jane Eyre,
spurned by her aunt and her cousins, grows up in Lowood orphanage, a
dreadful Victorian institution. There, she survives the appalling
conditions and rises to become one of the best students. Jane remains in
Lowood as a teacher and after several years she leaves the orphanage to
obtain employment as a private governess to the young ward of Mr. Edward
Rochester, at Thornfield Hall. The two of them fall in love with one
another but Rochester's dark secret prevents him from getting married and
nearly ruins Jane's life. She survives, however, comes to her rightful
inheritance, and returns to her lover who, purged from his guilt, maimed
but wiser, is able now to receive her and share with her a new life.
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The Author
 Charlotte
Brontë was the third of six children. Her father was a clergyman and
the family lived in the small and bleak Yorkshire town of Howarth.
Her older sisters, Elisabeth and Mary, died at a school for poor
clergymen's children, an institution very much like Lowood. Emily (Wuthering Heights) and Anne (The Tenant of Wildfelt Hall) became
well-known novelists and a brother, Branwell, who died at a very
early age, was a talented painter. Prejudice against women was so
strong in the nineteenth century the sisters had to adopt pseudonyms
for the initial publication of their novels and only revealed their
true identities after their books had become best sellers. Charlotte
spent more time away from Howarth than the rest of the Brontë
children, which gave her more experience of the outside world, but
she disliked the London literary circles. Her unrequited love for a
married man was poured in her other novels, "Vilette" and "The
professor". There was no social approval outside marriage for
women in the Victorian period and Charlotte's desire to marry
remained very strong. In her early forties she married to a
clergyman and a year later she died after giving
birth.
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The Novel
Unlike most Victorian novels, Jane Eyre is not a didactic
one. It avoids preaching and allows the message to emerge from the
story. Jane's behaviour may very well be unconventional but it is
not immoral. The novel is about a woman's journey through life but
it also attacks the social injustices of the period such as poverty,
lack of universal education, sexual inequality, and the terrible
dehumanising effects of the increasing industrialisation. It also
addresses serious contemporary issues such as educational cruelty
and religious intolerance.
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