Jane Eyre by John Joubert, Arcola Theatre & Green Opera; Grimeborn Opera Festival, Dalston, London E8 3DL, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

Photo Credit: Camilla Greenwell

Jane Eyre by John Joubert, Arcola Theatre & Green Opera; Grimeborn Opera Festival, Dalston, London E8 3DL,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

“Rediscovered Brönte novel as operatic drama in Grimeborn Opera season”

With sustainability at its core, Green Opera sends a joint message with the Arcola to consider the needs of art and environment consciousness in its productions. John Joubert’s rarely performed early 20th century drama of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre is a case in point.

Director Eleanor Burke’s imaginatively staged production takes small details to evoke a whole sequence of events, and it’s fascinating how it lights up forgotten parts of the original novel. An arm stretching towards a key hanging just out of reach, and a lit match flaring up, remind us that this is the story of the mad wife in the attic. A name, scratched onto a child’s slate, refers to the tragic death of one Helen, Jane’s childhood friend, at a badly run girls’ boarding school. In the title role, Laura Mekhail contrasts Jane’s fragile appearance with a powerful high soprano voice. The voice may at times be too high-powered for comfort, but the point is that only by using inner strength can Jane overcome the impoverished lot she had been thrown by Victorian society. The darkly handsome master of Thornfield Hall, Edward Rochester, sung commendably here by baritone Hector Bloggs in his first post Guildhall engagement, attempts a bigamous marriage with his hired governess while keeping his fire-hazard of a wife secretly locked in the attic. Jane escapes the fate of criminality, only to be assailed by an abusive missionary priest in Lawrence Thackeray’s crashing bore of a St John Rivers. Finally, telepathy comes to the fore as Rochester sheds his marital burden in a blaze at Thornfield Hall, and is left as an invalid. Modern dance artist Steffi Fashokun as Rochester’s Caribbean wife Bertha brings out the aspect that Charlotte Bronte may have missed - that the wife too was a victim of the marriage.

The score, conducted by Music Director Kenneth Woods, is slightly reminiscent of Britten in its tonality and counterpoint. The seven strong chamber orchestra of woodwind, horn, oboe, clarinet, and strings is finely played by the musicians in the confined underbalcony. It’s a pity that the production can’t extend beyond Saturday, but the Festival sees five productions for short runs until 14 September, ranging from ShatterBrain Productions and Regent’s Opera’s heralded four hour Tristan und Isolde on 13,15,16 August, to Barefoot Opera’s concluding production the Festival of Donizetti’s gothic opera Lucia di Lammermoor on 9,10,12,13 September.

Creatives

Conductor: Kenneth Woods

Director: Eleanor Burke

Set/costume designer: Emeline Beroud

Lighting designer: Trui Malten