Adaptations of classic novels are frequently good box office - the combination of a familiar story and being out of copyright is very attractive as a package. But with older narratives come older values, some of which may be outdated and requires reconsideration and recontextualisation in your new material, and if, say, you decide to do the material without thinking about why this story and why now, you can run into troubles....
In the case of this adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's fairly rambling novel, Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij's adaptation places a distinct emphasis on the central relationship between put-upon-orphan governess Jane and the somewhat Byronic Mr. Rochester (even down to the "when your personal life is screwing up, flee to Italy" impulse displayed during act two). This is, to use modern parlance, a relationship that is overflowing with red flags but it's a strong centre to the work, as the two find themselves pulled together, and it's also where a lot of the stronger material in this production stands, as Nellie Lee's Jane and Julian Garner's Rochester find themselves pulled together despite the power imbalance and the dirty little secret that Mr. Rochester's been hiding in the attic. The adaptation is an attempt to capture the whole novel, but it has a tendency to rush everything that isn't Jane and Rochester or move it to caricature, such that elements of Jane's childhood and the chapters of her post-Thornfield life seem underserved - the adaptation doesn't seem to really have time to give these sections any life beyond an obligatory "well it was in the novel".
Fortunately, it's in the performances that this relationship really works. Nelle Lee as Jane is narrator and protagonist throughout and keeps the attention even when elements of the adaptation are going a little wonky around her, and Julian Garner gives Rochester his grandeur and impressiveness. Elsewhere Jodie Le Vesconte picks up a number of small roles well, giving clear characterisations to various friends and foes of Jane, from a frustrating aunt to a kindly servant to a snobby socialite and a repressed potential sister-in-law. Sarah McLeod has mostly been hired to do the music and the brief attempts to have her play roles mostly feel either silly (in the case of her monotonously goofy Adele) or underdone (her Helen) although she's a reasonable presence as the somewhat feral Bertha.
The songs aren't really integrated into the show very well either - either they provide generic reflections of Jane's emotions which are more apparent in the scenes, or else they restate things that are already in the script - while they're perfectly fine melancholic ballads, they don't really heighten the action or do anything other than stretch the show over the two and a half hour mark. Michael Futcher's direction does move the cast around Josh McIntosh's impressive set pretty effectively but sometimes struggles to find a consistent tone between drama and giggles. I will say the dramatic flame effects in the finale do give the show a sense of the epic, and it's a pity that the rest of the show around it doesn't quite match that power.
So this is a mixed blessing - some decent moments but not an adaptation that really interrogates why this story needed to be retold or worked out a consistent way of presenting it in a modern context.
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