Drama and Theatre Studies - Bronte - Polly Teale and Expressionism Context

‘intrigued by the mythic power of the madwoman’

polly teale on bertha

‘by \[Charlotte\] Bronte’s repulsion and attraction to her own creation’

charlotte and bertha, Polly Teale

‘the madwoman had been born in reaction to the Victorian ideal of femininity’

bertha context, Polly Teale

‘Branwell is perhaps the most tragic figure in the play’

branwell, Polly Teale

‘The external lives of the Bronte’s were dreary… yet their inner lives were the opposite’

context on the Brontes, Polly Teale

‘writing the play made me think about the cost of greater visibility, greater ambition’

purpose of the play, Polly Teale

‘to dramatise this collision of drab domesticity and soaring, unfettered imagination’

purpose of the play, Polly Teale

‘she is an embodiment of Emily’s longing to return to the free state of childhood’

cathy, Polly Teale

‘an expression of everything (sexual, longing, rage, frustration) which Charlotte wishes to… conceal from others’

charlotte and bertha, Polly Teale

‘this is a response to the bronte story, not a biography’

style of the play, Polly Teale

‘this is a story of make-believe’

style of the play, Polly Teale

‘the power… to transcend time and place to take us places we cannot otherwise go’

the aim of the play, Polly Teale

‘i wanted us to look through the filter of time, to know we are playing a kind of game’

the style of the play, Polly Teale

‘it was very important to me to place the Brontes in history, to know that they lived at a time of huge social upheaval’

historical context, Polly Teale

‘it was… a tool to provoke reform, to expose justice’

Teale’s commentary on Anne’s writing in the play, and why her characterisation differs from the two sisters

‘Charlotte takes on the role of Jane, casting herself as the ‘good angel’… the antithesis of the madwoman’

Charlotte and Jane, Polly Teale

‘a world of male Victorian constraint and seething feminine rebellion’

review by Dominic Cavendish