Get ready to swoon – Mr Rochester steps onto the stage in Kent next week.

An energetic adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre by the National Theatre comes to the Marlowe Theatre from Monday, June 19.

The adaptation shows trailblazing Jane as inspiring as ever. From her beginnings as a destitute orphan, Jane’s spirited heroine faces life’s obstacles head-on, surviving poverty, injustice and the discovery of bitter betrayal before taking the ultimate decision to follow her heart.

Director Sally Cookson talks about how she created a new, lively adaptation of a story that is 170 years old.

I chose this particular title because it’s a story that I love...

I didn’t actually read the novel until I was in my early 20s – and I remember thinking while I read it ‘this is a clarion cry for equal opportunities for women not a story about a passive female who will do anything for her hunky boss’. I was struck by how modern Jane seemed – her spirit and strong will, her peculiar and brilliant mind striving for personal freedom to be who she is, lashing out against any constraint that prevents her from being herself. She was exactly the sort of person I wanted to be.

Adapting a novel for the stage is a challenging prospect – especially when that novel is cited as many people’s favourite of all time...

It is always daunting when you’re working on a story which everyone knows so well, because you want to surprise and maybe challenge people’s expectations, without losing any of the things which make them like the story in the first place. Our job has been to turn it from a book into a piece of theatre. That means creating something new – the experience of reading a book is very different to watching a play. I was keen to explore the themes and get to the heart of the story and characters in a theatrical way. The devising process involved us as a company responding together to the book. On the first day of rehearsal, there was no script, no read-through, just us as a company taking a deep breath together, making a leap into the unknown, trusting that eight weeks later, we’d have a show. A lot of the scenes emerged through improvising. I love shaping the material that emerges, pursuing and developing the kernels of ideas.

How do you think that the story works for today’s audiences?

Firstly, it is a superb story – a real page turner, with a protagonist who you root for from the start. Secondly, despite the fact that it was written over 160 years ago it deals with all the things we still find ourselves struggling with – “where do I fit in, who am I?” The intensity of the novel’s search for identity is something we have all experienced. Surrounding the heroine are characters grappling with their own individual identity crises. I don’t think there is one character who is not struggling in some way to come to terms with their circumstances and wrestling with the very idea of what it is to be human. Whether it’s Rochester or Helen Burns, Mrs Reed or Blanche Ingram, St John Rivers or Bertha Mason. In the middle is Jane, taking responsibility for her life and always taking action to change her circumstances when her integrity is in danger of being threatened.

Tell us about the staging of the play.

Apart from the actor who plays Jane, the actors play more than one part and are all on stage most of the time. The set which is a wooden structure made up of platforms, ramps and ladders is far from a literal interpretation of the Victorian period – it has a minimalist simplicity but provides the actors with a playground on which to perform and illustrate the physical and emotional struggle Jane encounters as she develops from a child into an independent woman. The band are placed in the centre of the set – I wanted the music to be central as it is intrinsic to the production.

DETAILS

Jane Eyre is at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, from Monday, June 19 to Saturday, June 24. Tickets from £18.75. Contact 01227 787787 or marlowetheatre.com.