After Mrs Rochester
Performed by BA (Hons) Acting, working alongside students from the BA (Hons) Theatre Practice.
The mad woman in the attic in Jane Eyre is placed centre stage in this intriguing examination of the life of Jean Rhys, author of Wide Sargasso Sea – a novel that reinvents the life of Bertha, Mrs Rochester.
‘I thought I’d write the story as it might really have been. She seemed such a poor ghost. I thought I’d try to write her a life.’ – Jean Rhys in the Paris Review 1979.
Bertha becomes Jean’s alter ego. Both are locked, literally and metaphorically, and the key to their freedom is at the heart of Polly Teale’s moving and startling piece of theatre.
After Mrs Rochester was first produced by Shared Experience in 2003.
By arrangement with Nick Hern Books.