The kids and I met some homeschool friends at the Clay Center in Charleston last night to see a live performance of Charlotte Bronte’s Gothic classic, Jane Eyre.  The play lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes (including a 15 minute intermission), but it was so enjoyable that the time flew by quickly.

The play wasn’t held in the main theater of the Clay Center, where we’ve seen every performance — musical as well as theatrical — to date.  Instead, Jane Eyre was performed in a small, rather intimate area, almost in the basement of the Clay Center.  There were only a few rows of seats for the audience, directly in front of and to one side of the stage, so that everyone was only a short distance away from the action.

What confused me at first was that only a handful of actors and actresses were in the play, so that most everyone (except Jane and Rochester) played multiple roles.  For instance, Jane’s cousin, John Reed, was played by the same actor who played one of the teachers at Lowood School, in the next scene.  I wondered how Jane could bite John’s arm, and then end up having him as her teacher.  

Bertha Mason, Rochester’s deranged wife, was played by an actress who had the thickest, longest, most wavy head of carrot red hair I’ve ever seen.  While she was locked in the attic, she flung that red hair in every direction in a maniacal fashion that seemed quite credible.

As always, I’m amazed that theatrical performers are able to memorize so many lines, particularly for such a lengthy play.