When I worked as a filing clerk, every afternoon I took armfuls of buff folders down to the basement. I’d shelve the files quick as I could, then pull out a stocky edition of Jane Eyre and furtively read another chapter. I was enraptured – especially by the stubbornly resilient heroine and her ardent rebuttal of injustice: “You think I have no feelings and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness, but I cannot live so – and you have no pity!” Reader, I loved it.
Did choreographer Cathy Marston devour Charlotte Brontë’s novel in a basement? Her 2016 version for Northern Ballet certainly feels devoted to its source material. Marston is noted for narrative ballets, often based on big-beast novels: Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities. Grand passions translate happily to ballet – jostling incident less easily.
