There are some plays that are so intricately woven that they really call out to be handled by a professional theatre company with an experienced director, cast and creative team who can work on it with the help of an extensive rehearsal period, and then have the play performed on a large stage with the benefit of the latest technical resources.
British playwright Polly Teale’s 2011 play BRONTË falls in to this category. I can’t conceive of a production of BRONTË, that doesn’t receive this level of treatment, succeeding. And so it is the case with the current community theatre production at the Genesian Theatre. Teale’s sets the bar too high and Barry Neilsen’s production falls well short.
Teale’s play explores the mystique surrounding the three celibate Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1845) and Anne (1820-1849) living in isolation in the dark shadows of the Yorkshire moors, who, in an era when women were considered second class citizens, (they weren’t even allowed in to public libraries, and any reading they undertook was closely supervised), wrote the most radical, psychological and passionate works, (poetry and novels), that are considered classics of world literature.
BRONTË is a complex, intensely theatrical play; there are multiple strands, time shifts and characters who are released from the pages that the Brontë sisters are writing, and bound across the stage. It is a very busy, dense play and Neilsen’s direction doesn’t do much to guide audiences through the maze.
The seven actors, Gregory George as Patrick, Aneeka Brownsberger as Charlotte, Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou, Rebecca Harris as Anne, Theo Rule as Branwell, Georgia Jarrett as Bertha/Cathy and Theo Hatzistergos as Nicholls, Heathcliff, Heger, Rochester and Huntington, work very hard however these roles are beyond their range.
Tom Fahy’s set of the Brontë living room, is functional enough without having any symbolic level. Michael Schell’s lighting and sound design is quality as is Susan Carveth’s period costumes.
On the night I went the production was fraught with difficulties, with an actor drying in one scene and a lighting miscue which saw an actor who was centre stage, quickly scurry off.
This was a wobbly, fraught production of a very demanding play. Polly Teale’s BRONTË is playing the Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent Street, Sydney, off Druitt Street until 22nd July 2023.
Cast :
Patrick : Gregory George
Charlotte : Aneeka Brownsberger
Emily : Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou
Anne : Rebecca Harris
Branwell : Theo Rule
Bertha/Cathy : Georgia Jarrett
Nicholls/Heathcliff/Heger/Rochester/Huntington : Theo Hatzistergos
Creative Team :
Director : Barry Nielsen
Assistant Director : Georgia Jarrett
Set Design : Tom Fahy
Lighting and Sound Design : Michael Schell
Costume Design : Susan Carveth
Production photography : Craig O’Regan
