'Jane Eyre' Brought To Stage

Knight Ridder/Tribune

Bringing "Jane Eyre" to life onstage is no small task.

Like Dickens' works, Charlotte Bronte's 1847 novel was written when the Victorian reading audience had more time and patience to savor multiple characters, locations, plot twists and revelations.

Fortunately, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre has experience with distilling these big, unwieldy projects down to a manageable size.

Earlier this year, the company staged a three-actor version of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" that retained the essentials without making you feel like you were consuming a reduced-calorie version.

Alan Stanford's stage adaptation of "Jane Eyre" does similar service, offering the essential conflicts and plot points so that newcomers can follow the story easily.

For those unfamiliar with the novel, it's the story of an outspoken, intelligent and highly principled woman who lives in a time when the first two of those three attributes were not considered female assets.

Orphaned and living on the charity of unpleasant relatives, Jane is exiled to an equally unpleasant boarding school, where she is trained to become a governess. She finds a place in a large, isolated mansion owned by the dark, brooding, yet highly attractive Mr. Rochester.

Needless to say, romance ensues, but impediments stand in the way of their happiness.

Stanford's adaptation and Scott Wise's crisp direction do a superb job of keeping the action moving and attention high for what is a long drama -- two hours and 30 minutes -- filled with a great deal of talk and an abundance of narrative.

The downside is that many of the story's most dramatic moments happen -- as they do in the original novel -- offstage. We experience them only in the retelling.

Unlike Pittsburgh Irish & Classical's three-actor "Crime and Punishment," this drama has a huge cast -- 16 performers, some of whom play three or four characters.

Some of these ensemble performances work better than others: Kate Young injects comedy and warmth as Mrs. Fairfax and Hanna, and Larry John Meyers creates two delightfully grumpy Victorians as Brocklehurst and Briggs.

The character of Jane is shared by three actresses. Jenna Lanz plays the blunt and honest Child Jane. Shelley Delaney plays Jane Senior, who observes the action and acts as occasional narration to the story and emotional support to her younger selves.

The core of the story and the charm of the production fall to Allison McLemore and David Whalen.

As the middle Jane, McLemore, who looks a lot like Audrey Hepburn, nicely balances strength and vulnerability, reason and emotion. She's a woman who knows what she wants and, more importantly, what she doesn't want.

Whalen's Rochester is a man in possession of dark secrets, unhealed emotional wounds and a conspicuously hideous wig. Whalen makes him appealing by emphasizing his ability to listen and talk with Jane as an intelligent equal. That Whalen the actor can deliver highly romantic and flowery lines with authenticity and honesty also is a big plus.

Production values are high.

Douglas Levine has composed some musical interludes that he performs as pianist along with clarinet player Mary Beth Malek.

Costume designer Diane Kubasak Collins clothes the show's nearly 30 characters with some truly lovely outfits, most notably middle Jane's gray gown.

Scenic designer Gianni Downs provides a shallow but practical playing area that eliminates set changes and maintains a cinematic flow. But I did get a little tired of the rocks that served as seating areas for both interior and exterior scenes.

The result is a production that honors the spirit and feel of Bronte's novel while making it enjoyable to a contemporary theater audience.

Alice T. Carter is the theater critic for the Tribune-Review. She can be reached via e-mail or 412-320-7808.

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