From Page to Stage

Attempts to adapt any type of literature into drama can be very difficult and such adaptations run the risk of neglecting vital parts of the source text. Two French novels experienced such a transformation when The Phantom of the Opera's masked murderer threatening to blow up an opera house and Les Miserables' story of the June rebellion were translated into song. I'm not saying anything against these musicals, as I frequently find myself humming their songs under my breath, but one cannot argue that these pieces of theatre stay strictly true to their source material, Leroux's . Until very recently, I didn't think I'd ever find a piece of theatre that did adhere to the novel it is based on.

The Rosemary Branch Theatre
 in Islington
Source: https://twitter.com/rosemarybranch

When I first found out that someone (namely Bryony J. Thompson) had adapted Jane Eyre into a play while browsing the "What's On" section of the Londonist website, I was skeptical. Charlotte Bronte's novel is almost entirely internal, portraying the story through Jane's multi-layered thoughts. I suspected that the play would be something like recent movie adaptations, like Cary Fukunga's adaptation from 2011, in which Rochester and Jane convey their internal struggles through a series of drawn out, angst-ridden silences punctuated by over-the-top facial expressions (Again, don't take this critique as my full opinion of the piece; this film adaptation is one of my favorites). And while movies can hold an audience in those silent moments through closeups, changes in camera angle, and dramatic scoring, the theatre doesn't offer that same level of close intensity. I wondered how successful the play would be, but since it was playing at a fringe theatre in Islington, above a pub, and with cheap concession tickets, I thought I'd give it a try. I figured even if it was bad, the level of acting in London in a bad play would still put it above many of the "good" plays I've seen back home.

Promotional photo for Jane Eyre, adapted by
Bryony J. Thompson
Source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/
About-Thames-Ditton/350182988326159

To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. My skepticism, which had increased slightly when I saw the completely white-washed stage and white-clad actors, completely vanished as I sank into Bronte's words. Without any additions or adaptations to the original language, the cast portrayed Jane's thoughts and opinions almost musically as each company member served as a voice to her thoughts. While it seems that such a set-up would be disorienting and disrupted when it's described in words, the seamless transition between each person maintained the illusion that the words being spoken were Jane's thoughts. The actress playing Jane, Hannah Maddison, reacted as naturally to the voices around her as if she herself had spoken the words, furthering the illusion even more. While some of the choreographed movements were slightly cheesy, what stood out in the play was the fact that Jane's, and therefore Bronte's, voice was the center piece. Without fancy sets or involved costumes, with the lack of color and the subtle music backing the words said on stage, Bronte's words alone created the images for the audience. As Jane described her travel through the heath, a single light on Maddison's upturned face, I could imagine the fields around her, the darkening night, the single light shining off in the distance. Hearing Bronte's words aloud, unedited, unchanged, brought the strength of her words to the forefront. The iconic lines, read over and over by so many, took on a level of emotion when spoken aloud that cannot be conveyed from a page alone. Suddenly, this adaptation to the stage brought elements of the text to light for me that I had never considered before, despite my many readings of Bronte's novel.

From page to map: John Snow's map of the
cholera outbreak of 1854
Source: http://thesleeplessreader.com/2011/11/22/
the-ghost-map-by-johnson/

Watching this play, having my experience of a novel that I love be changed in new, interesting ways, I recognized how similar my experience was to the experiences of those who suddenly approached science differently in the long 19th century. The stories influenced by scientific discovery, such as those by Kipling and Lear, might have changed how some children experienced science. But I found myself thinking more and more of how the situations described in The Ghost Map reflected this idea of taking information or a story in form and adapting it into another form to enhance other's knowledge. Snow, taking his originally written research on cholera, adapted that information into the form of a map, which suddenly brought to light how the epidemic had stemmed from the Broad Street pump. While some people might have seen and grudgingly accepted Snow's ideas on the waterborne transmission of cholera in written form, the sudden confrontation with the same ideas encompassed in the entirely different form of a map brought about greater revelations than Snow's written work alone could have. Thus, adaptations of works, be they from page to stage or from page to map, can bring about enlightening new discoveries.