Jane Eyre

Manitoba Theatre Centre (MTC) is a huge theatre company here in Winnipeg, founded in 1958. Every year, they put on tons of really great plays, so you could imagine my excitement when I heard they were putting on Jane Eyre!

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For those of you who haven't heard of it, Jane Eyre was published in 1847 by Charlotte Bronte. It's about Jane, an orphan who had a rough childhood, but kept her positivity despite it all, then goes Thornfield Hall to become a governess and falls in love with Mr. Rochester. Soon, she discovers a dark secret that will make their marriage impossible.

It's a beautiful love story, written in the same era as Pride and Prejudice, which I am totally fascinated with!

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The play was incredible! They used what is called "Chamber Theatre" which is when the narrative is included in the dialogue. For example; "He entered. Jane!" type of thing. I've never seen that done before, so it was really interesting. It worked really well to explain Jane's childhood. It looked like she was re-telling the story and it was perfect!

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As you can see on the pictures, the costumes were really, really well made and the set, which was super simple seemed like the best choice for this type of play. It gave us a lot of room for imagination. They did use a lot of humour when it came to the set. For example, there's a scene or two with horses, and it's people playing them (Mr. Rochester's character sits on two of the men's shoulders).

It was so good that I went home and watched the 2011 movie! I wish I could go back and see it again, that's for sure!