Skip to main content
The Morning Star 2026 Conference
Feminist intent, uneven impact
A contemporary interpretation of Jane Eyre doesn't quite hit the mark for SUSAN DARLINGTON
Independent spirit: Dreda Blow as Jane Eyre [Emma Kauldhar]

Jane Eyre
Leeds Grand Theatre
Touring

THERE have been so many theatrical adaptations of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre that finding a truly original interpretation is no easy task.

Thus it proves with Cathy Marston’s dance theatre production for Northern Ballet, nominated for the South Bank Sky Arts Dance Award last year, which uneasily balances the traditional with the feminist.

Jane Eyre, represented at different ages by Dreda Blow and Antoinette Brooks-Daw, is shown as an independent spirit from the start. With fists clenched and head bowed, she stoically rebels against the cruelties inflicted on her by her aunt Mrs Read and the rigours of Lowood School.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
cyrano
Theatre review / 8 October 2025
8 October 2025

GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship

DEFIANT: Dan Daw and Christopher Owen in The Dan Daw Show [Pic: Jess Shurte]
Follow the movement / 5 August 2025
5 August 2025

Given the tawdry push and pull around disability benefits, MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes Dan Daw’s defiant celebration of body and sexuality

flam
Dance / 30 May 2025
30 May 2025

PETER MASON is wowed (and a little baffled) by the undeniably ballet-like grace of flamenco

UN-NUANCED: Sophie Melville, Leander Deeny, Laura Whitmore i
Theatre Review / 6 April 2025
6 April 2025
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by characters so un-nuanced as to be unreal, a stereotypical plot and a conceptual vampire