Bronte Begins

"Bronte" is the Bench Theatre production opening on Thursday April 24th until Saturday May 3rd, 2008. It is the Polly Teale version created with Shared Experience. The Best Beloved is the director with yours truly as movement director (and possibly dialogue coach). The Firstborn is the Stage Manager and Cat is playing Charlotte Bronte, so it is something of a family show. I think the Natty Chap may be approached as lighting designer.

The cast gathered for the first read through on Monday 3rd March. The other two sisters are Lorraine as Anne and Frankie as Emily. The ghosts were played by a single actress in the original production but they will be split in ours with Lynda as Bertha and Jo as Cathy.

The two men have to play a number of male characters each. David is Patrick, the Bronte father, and Callum is Branwell, the brother. David has given Patrick a slight Irish burr but has also discovered that Bell Nicholl, another male character he plays, was also Irish. Heger, a third character, is Belgian and David's final part is as Rochester from "Jane Eyre". Callum has also to play Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" and Arthur Huntington from "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall".

The play has an interesting structure. The actresses playing the three Bronte sisters change out of modern clothed and into costume during the Prologue. The play then plays chronological tricks with the timeline 1825 - 1854. We see the sisters' story at various times during their lives but not necessarily in time order. By the time the audience see it, this will be absolutely clear but it does mean the company have a lot of work to do to keep the structure clear in their own heads.

As this is FA Cup day and Barnsley are playing Chelsea at their Oakwell ground, I was intrigued to see that Charlotte Bronte - under her nom de plume of Fieldhead - stayed at Oakwell Hall. How's that for an interesting coincidence?

The cast will also have to take on board a Yorkshire accent, which will be part of my briefing. Also a physiotherapist observing the Club Night on Thursday last observed that the incorrect posture was adopted in response to the request to behave like Victorians. She has offered to help with the movement in rehearsal and to do some exercises in future Club Night sessions. The wardrobe are also working very hard to get costumes ready for rehearsal rather than just for performances. I am not sure whether corsets are part of the costume brief but perhaps they should be.

The Club Night also produced outlines of the plots of "Jane Eyre", "Wuthering Heights" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" acted out by three sections of the gathered assemblage. It was interesting to note how much aspects of all three plots have been retained in the memory as almost iconic moments but how much of the plot is really unknown. It certainly helped the cast to learn about the three books in a painless way and hopefully helped the whole company towards an interest in the current production.

The next rehearsal is Sunday 9th March with a look at the two men and their variety of parts. We will also look at the interaction between Anne and her brother, Branwell.

Jo and Frankie are rehearsing "Stand and Delivery", the Mark Wakeman one acter, for the Totton Drama Festival on Friday 14th March. Cat is away in London at the Actors' Workshop.

I will try to keep you abreast of progress in the production as we go along. It is certainly an interesting challenge to be playing people with real lives who actually existed. The research possibilities are there but one has to rely on Polly Teale having done hers beforehand before writing the play. She will have selected what she wanted to include in the telling of her tale.