Jane Eyre (National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic, 2015)

Jane Eyre (National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic, 2015), adapted by Sally Cookson

One of the things I have been enjoying during the lockdown is the fact that many theatre productions have been streamed free online. After a stressful venture to the supermarket, watching the livestream of the 2015 production of Jane Eyre was a nice thing to come home to and I enjoyed pretending to be in a theatre from my sofa. Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books and one that I have seen a number of adaptations made, so I was really interested to see what decisions had been made for this stage show and whether I would agree with them.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (West End Revival, 2018)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, adapted by Simon Stephens and Mariane Elliot 

Back in 2003, I took part in the Carnegie Medal Shadowing Scheme at school; we picked a number of books from the longlist, read them, and decided as a group which we thought would win. If my memory serves correctly, there were two books which ran a very close race in our school group: Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time*. While Private Peaceful had quickly become one of my favourite books, there was something powerful about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time that meant it stayed in my head long after I had finished reading. Having missed the stage adaptation of Haddon’s novel the first time round, I was very excited to get to go and see the revival over Christmas, especially since everyone that I had spoken to had raved about it. I can safely say that my excitement was justified, as this was a wonderful, clever, and faithful adaptation that retained the power of the source material.

2017 Favourites

2017 Favourites

I can hardly believe that it is time to do a 2017 Favourites post; this year has gone by so quickly. The last few months have proved difficult in terms of keeping up with my reading and my blogging, but it has been good to reflect over the books I have enjoyed over the course of the year.

Pride and Prejudice (Illyria, 2017)

Pride and Prejudice (Illyria, 2017)

During a recent visit to London with some friends, we discovered that the touring outdoor theatre company Illyria would be performing Pride and Prejudice in the grounds of Westminster Abbey whilst we were there. Illyria had brought this adaptation to our city earlier in the year, but we hadn’t been able to make it then; I’m so glad we were able to see it in London. It was a wonderful evening: a beautiful setting (and good weather) for a very funny adaptation of Austen’s novel.

Northanger Abbey (Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds, 2017)

Northanger Abbey (Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds, 2017)

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you may have picked up that Northanger Abbey is a novel very close to my heart: I mentioned in my Characters I Connected With post that Catherine Morland was a character I related to a lot as a teenager. It is, although very closely followed by Emma, my favourite Austen novel. So when I saw that the Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds stage adaptation of Northanger Abbey would be coming to my local theatre as part of its tour, my friends and I decided we had to go and see it. This was an enjoyable adaptation, that maintained the humour of Austen’s novel, but failed somewhat to capture the characters as they appear in the source text.

I Capture the Castle (Watford Palace Theatre and Octagon Theatre Bolton, 2017)

I Capture the Castle (Watford Palace Theatre and Octagon Theatre Bolton, 2017)

Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle is one of my favourite novels of all time; I have read and reread it many times, utterly enchanted by the eccentric world of the Mortmain family. It includes one of my favourite opening lines (“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink”) and characters I hold dear. It was also meaningful to other members of my family, so when we realised that the musical adaptation would be kicking off its run nearby, we had to make a family outing of it. I’ll admit I was torn between being very excited and very nervous about the musical: I was excited to see how they staged and interpreted the characters, but I struggled to see how it would work as a musical. However, I have never been so glad to have an adaptation surpass all my expectations: this was a wonderful musical that found a myriad of ways to maintain the tone of the novel and characters.