'Dear Charlotte...'

I did not feel like posting today, after the horrible attacks in London. My personal thoughts have already been shared, and now it is time for me to try diverting the thoughts of my friends. And so, I've decided to go ahead with this post- which I have been planning since last night, when I first stumbled upon this.

I wanted to see if my blog would be found through keyword searches, and found that it is not yet. But I did find something very interesting- a play called 'Dear Charlotte'. The main website can be found here: http://www.dearcharlotte.com/index1.html I had come across one other play about the lives of the Brontës (behold! There are umlauts! :D ) but something about it had left me cold. I can't remember what it was exactly- and I never got to see the play. Really, this play sounds like just the sort of thing I would enjoy.

"Dear Charlotte weaves the biography and writings of Victorian author Charlotte Brontë into imagery, movement and drama, telling both the story of a woman finding her voice; and also how the world of imagination can save a life from the confines of repression, grief and hardship."

I really enjoy theatre, especially when it involves more than the usual arts of acting and the voice. It sounds like it could be a very interesting production! But... as you know, I must have the absurd too:

"Charlotte literally stuffs her imagination - the person of an androgynous character from her stories named Zamorna - into a trunk, silencing her writing altogether...Charlotte hits on her great project: to recreate the conventional romantic heroine in her own image. "I will show you a heroine as small and as plain as myself who shall be as interesting as any of yours," she says as Zamorna reappears, transformed now into a young governess, a Jane Eyre to come."

Now, did I read that correctly? ...Zamorna... transforms into... Jane Eyre. I have got to see this play! Also, I would really love to see Charlotte trying to stuff the Duke into a hamper!!!
Duke of Zamorna is Jane Eyre?

I am still reading on... there's also some slapstick. Brontean slapstick?! FABULOUS!!

"Dear Charlotte moves through moments of chorally spoken poetry, movement sequences, dramatic scenes and slapstick farce, punctuated by poetic stage imagery such as falling cascades of paper, or books which emit rays of light when opened."

Hmmm... Those books remind me of the giant death ray cookie tin that they had at the art gallery a few years ago. It was a big metal tin with a laser inside. I was approaching to get a better look when my friend ran across the room shouting "nooooooooo!" and shoved me aside. Books don't generally have the same special effects- theirs are much sweeter and less disco-tastic.