The award-winning Los Angeles Acting Company will visit Mississippi State to perform the theatrical adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s 19th century novel “Jane Eyre” as part of the Lyceum Series. Adapted for the stage by British playwright Polly Teale, the play brings to life one of literature’s most influential and powerful women.
In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, Teale was asked why she decided to translate “Jane Eyre” onto stage.
“When I first read it, it was more of a horror story,” Teale said. “It was fascinating coming back to it as an adult and seeing how rich it is. I started to see the possibility that you can have the madwoman as an expression of part of Jane in herself that has to be shut away. It seemed very theatrical.”
The Acting Company, transforming the masterpiece from 1847, has performed 127 productions for more than three million people in 48 states and nine foreign countries. Former members of the company include Rainn Wilson, Patti LuPone, Jeffrey Wright and Kevin Kline.
According to notes by director Davis McCallum, “Jane Eyre” is a story of containment and release, as Jane struggles from the imprisonment of her childhood towards an almost unthinkable goal of mature freedom.
McCallum notes that he thinks Jane is actually two people – one calm, tranquil and “frozen,” and the other frantic and unruly. Teale explains the reasoning for this two-sided personality, which was also included in her interview.
“You can see that inside this contained, controlled woman, there is another self who is angry and afraid – and has sexuality, imagination and this great longing for experience,” Teale said. “Because Bronte was writing in a time when she couldn’t express these things herself, she created this madwoman.”
McCallum and his team of actors and designers have created a production suitable for both young audiences and keen theater goers. The team consists of Neil Patel, set designer; Christal Weatherly, costume designer; Michael Chybowski, lighting designer; Michael Friedman and Fitz Patton, in charge of music and sound; and Tracy Bersley, movement director.
“A variety of people will attend the performance,” said Jim Hunter Walsh, head of the Lyceum Series. “We sell season tickets to mostly adults, which will probably take up about one-third of the audience. The rest will be students who get in free and walk-ups that will pay at the show. Anyone is welcome to attend, and it should be exciting for all ages.”
The Acting Company has won numerous awards including a Tony award for “Excellence in Theatre,” the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, two Audelco and Obie awards and Citibank’s Excellence in Education award.
According to McCallum’s notes, when he was a freshman in college, his English professor took his class to the rare book room in the library, where one of their prized possessions was a tiny book about the size of a matchbook, with delicate rice-paper pages and the most obsessive miniature handwriting. It was a childhood fantasy epic written by Charlotte Bront‰ about a made-up world called Angria.
“I think the image of that tiny book is a good metaphor for Jane Eyre – something poor, obscure and plain that contains vast alternate worlds,” he says.
The performance will take place March 6 in the McComas Hall Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for senior citizens 65 and older and $8 for children ages 3-12. MSU students will not be charged admission if they bring a valid student ID. For more information about tickets or programs, call 325-4201.