Last Updated on January 2, 2026
Cathy Marston’s Adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic Novel Lacks Some Fire
3.0 out of 5.0 starsJane Eyre is among the most well-loved and famous Gothic romance novels; it was written by Charlotte Brontë in 1847 and has been adapted many times in theatre, film, television and opera. In 2016, Cathy Marston, inspired by her love of literature, took this story and adapted it for Northern Ballet. Cathy Marston herself is named after the Cathy in Wuthering Heights, which she choreographed for Bern Ballet in 2009. She is an internationally recognised choreographer who is known for using classical technique integrated with contemporary movement, using the whole body to express emotions.
Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre opened at Sadler’s Wells last Tuesday and was an intense, emotional two-act ballet, with scenes both heart-rending and passionate, the story convincingly communicated by the company’s beautiful dancing. It is a Bildungsroman set in Yorkshire in the 19th Century against the backdrop of the forbidding, bleak moors. It explores Jane’s triumph over the abusive and lonely times of her childhood and her growth into emotional maturity. We witness her pursuit of love, belonging and fulfilment, despite the misogyny of the many characters that she meets and the restrictions of the times in which she lived. Charlotte Brontë herself had to publish her book under a man’s name – Currer Bell – so she wrote from experience.
The D-Men who appear throughout the ballet are not only props (such as men holding candles), or men pushing Jane on in her story, or male guests at the ball, or figures representing her inner demons, but they also represent ‘Men’ that obstruct her and hold her back, which she must overcome by the end of the ballet. Cathy Marston explains that the D-Men have ‘an elemental feel when they move as a group – like a storm gathering over the moor’. I imagine that ‘D-Men’, implying Jane’s inner ‘demons’, has been written by Marston in this alternate way to emphasise the gendered nature of her trauma, and how deeply she has been affected by the cruelty of men. Men who obstruct Jane would include the boy John (her cousin), the Rev. Brocklehurst, and Rochester himself.
This thesis that her sole trauma is grounded in the male gender arguably is a little simplistic, given the trauma she faces from her aunt, female cousins and female staff at Lowood (though not shown in this ballet) and Bertha, and only about three or four men are introduced in her life, but there are about eight D-Men, which seemed like rather a lot both narrative-wise and in terms of their large presence on stage. Sometimes they were more effective, as with the candlelit scenes where they place the light in creative spaces to affect different scenes and moods. They cleverly block and obscure her, given that they are, of course, quite large next to Jane, but this also has the effect of limiting Jane’s dramatic influence and crowding her out in her own story.
Patrick Kinmonth (Sets and Costumes) designed the grey painted curtains which evoked the moody Yorkshire moors, and which creatively revealed other scenes and hidden doors. In stark contrast to the grey were the bright red of fireplaces, the fire in Rochester’s bedroom, and the great fire at Thornfield Hall. The staging of the fire scenes was the standout effects against the rest, rather simple set choices. The sombre costumes successfully conveyed the grim atmosphere.
There were a few more vivid costumes in red (Bertha) and pink/lilac (Adele and Blanche). The lighting design, by Alastair West, was effective and especially worked during the fire scenes. Philip Feeney composed and compiled the music, which harmoniously accompanied the dancing. It was performed masterfully by the small live orchestra, featuring some lovely piano pieces by Schubert and melodies by Fanny Mendelssohn (a contemporary of the Brontës), and the conductor was Daniel Parkinson.
The ballet opened with a Prologue, depicting Jane fleeing from Rochester and other obstructing male figures, and collapsing far from Thornfield, having traversed the moors. She is discovered by St John Rivers, who rescues her and takes her to his house, represented by a raised platform at the back of the stage, where he and his sisters nurse her back to health. The decision to include this repeated scene in the prologue was one that solidified Marston’s interpretation of the wider theme of the book, but this did add an element of confusion for the audience.
We meet Jane again as a child of ten who has just been orphaned; she was danced by Rachael Gillespie, who expressed her sadness and isolation superbly. She also showed her anger as she stood up to her bullying cousins, particularly her physically abusive cousin John (Yu Wakizuka), and her dismissive Aunt Reed (Harriet Marden, who later plays Grace Poole). Gillespie’s portrayal of the young Jane was beautiful and raw, and her emotional performance was a highlight of the production.
The scene in The Red Room was not included in the ballet, which was an unfortunate misstep; this scene is particularly powerful and might have offered a dramatic and psychologically intriguing solo, and further, would skillfully foreshadow the use of the colour red and fire in later scenes.
Jane is then sent to the Lowood Institution, an orphanage, run by the oppressive Rev. Brocklehurst, who was danced by Jonathan Hanks; he convincingly communicated his hypocrisy and cruelty. The orphaned girls, dressed in blue with brown aprons, were sensitively portrayed by the company dancers; they danced in synchronisation to show that they were downtrodden and repressed in their controlling environment, but still a tight-knit team. Here Jane meets her great friend and role model Helen Burns (a pious girl danced with sweetness and pathos by Saeka Shirai), who is badly mistreated but bravely endures the abuse, showing Jane how to be more forgiving and tolerant. The duets between them were deeply moving and particularly memorable, the choreography tenderly captured their friendship.
The character of Helen Burns is largely based on Charlotte Brontë’s eldest sister, Maria, who attended Cowan Bridge School, the model for Lowood; she died of Tuberculosis, aged eleven, due to the terrible conditions. I would have liked to see the character of Miss Temple included in the ballet, as it was also due to her long friendship and influence that Jane developed in her self-worth, her control of her emotions, and her desire for education and a fulfilling future life. Jane becomes a teacher at the school, and the young Jane is replaced by the older Jane, sensitively danced by Sarah Chun. While a two-act ballet has limitations on characters and scenes, excluding The Red Room scene and Miss Temple’s crucial influence seems like a significant omission, and including these could have added beautiful choreography.
The scene changes to Thornfield, where Jane arrives as a new governess to Edward Rochester’s ward, Adele. She meets Adele (a bouncy Julie Nunès) and the housekeeper, the anxious but kindly Mrs. Fairfax (Heather Lehan), and their choreography together is charming; Adele freely expressive and full of girlish spirit, representing an opposite girlhood to that experienced by Jane, and Mrs. Fairfax, jittery with her funny, fussy walk. Nunès portrayed the humour, delightfulness and youth of Adele, and her choreography easily captured the movement of a small child.
Rochester, danced powerfully by Joseph Taylor, returns, and she meets him languishing in a high-backed armchair. I felt the lack of the scene in the book where Jane first meets Rochester on her way to Thornfield, and he falls off his horse, accusing her of bewitching it; it would have made an excellent duet. Jane’s love of art and her sharing of it with people, including Rochester, they bond discussing her watercolour paintings – was also not included, and this could have added more depth to the ballet.
Their growing relationship was shown through his controlling (and amusing) leg movements – he guides her with his outstretched left leg, and they have some reciprocal feet interactions; their duets become more impassioned as they fall in love. However, Rochester didn’t seem particularly tortured or untamed, which I would have imagined him to be – he was not really so much an antihero as a lovely dancer – and the portrayal of their intellectual connection could have been stronger.
There could have been more opportunities for solos for them both, and Jane without the D-Men, to portray their psychological states of mind. For two such inward, repressed characters, their lack of solos seemed amiss, and as such, the isolation they feel as individuals is lost on the audience.
There is a sense of Gothic foreboding, and a mysterious character appears a few times in the shadows: Bertha, Rochester’s secret, insane wife. He has her locked up in the attic under the care of his servant, Grace Poole. In those times, divorce was very rare, and insanity was not a ground for divorce. Bertha was danced by Gemma Coutts, who revealed her madness well, and the staging of her dance behind the red curtain was captivating. Jane wakes and saves Rochester from the fire, and together they use a large white bedsheet to put it out, allowing for a deeper intimacy to develop.
This moment had a lovely stark white beauty to it; however, the ballet was missing a stronger solo moment for Bertha in the moments before. Although atmospheric, the curtain she was behind as the fire began was too opaque in this production to present more than the outline of her shadow. Her choreography felt like a missed opportunity to show her complexity, pain and the terror of her madness, lacking some elegance.
Act Two begins with a ball at Thornfield where the company and D-Men appear as the party guests. One female guest, Blanche Ingram, wishes to marry the wealthy Rochester; they dance together, and this sparks Jane’s jealousy and insecurity.
The party is broken up when Bertha escapes the attic and attacks Grace Poole when she tries to send her back. The guests leave on Rochester’s order. Strangely ignoring Poole’s situation, Jane and Rochester seem to fight and, after expressing hesitation, they realise they are in love and agree to get married. This scene is a little scattered, different from the book, but sustains emotional weight.
The wedding takes place in the house, again different from the book, where obviously they marry in a nearby church, where Bertha’s brother disrupts the ceremony. The marriage being set in the house and Bertha being able to come down from the attic was a little unbelievable, and Bertha’s choreography during her reveal again lacked lustre and presence, having some slightly pantomime-ish qualities, like repeatedly tapping Rochester on the back to get his attention while the other guests and bride remain oblivious, then giving the priest a lackluster push.
Rochester admits he is already married to Bertha, and the wedding is stopped. Bertha’s appearance was intended to be Gothic and disturbing, and Coutts was a strong dancer, but the scenario came across as strange and unlikely. Perhaps something might be done to help Bertha’s character inspire more fear in the scene, which would greatly improve the gravitas here and achieve that sought-after Gothic effect. Sarah Chun powerfully portrayed Jane’s devastation when she accepts Rochester’s betrayal, and she succumbs to despair and subsequently flees from the house to the moors. Jane is unable to consent to being Rochester’s mistress, that being against her morals and her wish to be his social equal.
She collapses on the moors surrounded by the D-Men, returning to the Prologue, and again, it would have been nice to see her in a solo for this moment. St John Rivers was danced by Jackson Dwyer, who takes her in. She is looked after by his sisters, Diana (Kaho Masumoto) and Mary (Alessia Petrosino), who were beautifully kind. This is not shown in the dancing, but in this period Jane becomes independent (although she lives with St John and his sisters), working as a teacher and inheriting money from her uncle; this is important but not easily depicted in the ballet. The ballet did convey, however, that St John viewed Jane as a suitable missionary wife, and he proposes marriage to her. She is determined to marry for love and rejects St John. She returns to Thornfield upon imagining that she can hear Rochester calling for her across the moors.
At the house, there has been another fire lit by Bertha, and Rochester, who tried to save her, is violently blinded by her. She grabs his head and pushes her thumbs into his eyes, an effective moment, though this is not the cause for his blindness in the book. Then, leaving him blind and alone, she quickly rolls into the darkness, and we can imagine she has met her end.
Rochester and Jane are tearfully reunited in a ‘blind’ duet, which was suitably tender and gentle. The final scene, with him standing just behind her in the spotlight, did achieve a commendable quiet pathos. She has completed her journey with dignity, independence, and with love.
Cathy Marston, who trained at the Royal Ballet School, choreographed the deeply moving one-act ballet The Cellist in 2020, where the role of Jacqueline du Pré was danced by Lauren Cuthbertson. Philip Feeney also worked on this production. Cathy Marston is now the Director and Head Choreographer of Ballett Zürich.
This adaptation for Northern Ballet, despite some omissions in the storyline, was a dramatic adaptation, providing an enjoyable evening of expressive ballet performed by an excellent company, and the live orchestra was wonderful. The first act was particularly inspired, showcasing the young Jane’s passions and grief. The second act had merit, though it possessed too many pas de deux and not enough solo moments for better gravitas and psychological insight. Frederico Bonelli, formerly a Principal with the Royal Ballet, became Northern Ballet’s Artistic Director in May 2022. I would recommend seeing Jane Eyre as it moves from Sadler’s Wells to Norwich Theatre Royal later in May.
You can find tickets here:
Tickets link: Jane Eyre | Northern Ballet
20- 24th May 2025, Norwich Theatre Royal
Sadler’s Wells
Rosebery Avenue,
London
EC1R 4TN
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