MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
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Feminist intent, uneven impact
A contemporary interpretation of Jane Eyre doesn't quite hit the mark for SUSAN DARLINGTON
Independent spirit: Dreda Blow as Jane Eyre
[Emma Kauldhar]
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
Jane Eyre
Leeds Grand Theatre
Touring
THERE have been so many theatrical adaptations of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre that finding a truly original interpretation is no easy task.
Thus it proves with Cathy Marston’s dance theatre production for Northern Ballet, nominated for the South Bank Sky Arts Dance Award last year, which uneasily balances the traditional with the feminist.
Jane Eyre, represented at different ages by Dreda Blow and Antoinette Brooks-Daw, is shown as an independent spirit from the start. With fists clenched and head bowed, she stoically rebels against the cruelties inflicted on her by her aunt Mrs Read and the rigours of Lowood School.
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Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
GEORGE FOGARTY is captivated by a brilliant one-man show depicting life in HMP Strangeways
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
![DEFIANT: Dan Daw and Christopher Owen in The Dan Daw Show [Pic: Jess Shurte]](https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-08/crip%20joy%20web%281%29.jpg.webp?itok=OcQcfsb0)
Given the tawdry push and pull around disability benefits, MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes Dan Daw’s defiant celebration of body and sexuality