For fans of the Brontë sisters and literature nerds alike, this touching performance about Britain’s favourite literary sisters is sure to be a hit. More Myself Than I Am explores the Brontë siblings—Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell—and the details of their life that led to the three sisters producing some of the greatest literary works in history. In just 50 minutes, the play spans years of their lives, from pre-publication to their deaths. While at times this meant that some time jumps felt particularly large, the dialogue was well written and provided enough information for the audience not to get lost.
Packed full of biographical details, this play assumes an existing knowledge of the siblings and builds from there. The show alternates between direct address to the audience—indicated by the harsher, cooler lights—and scenes between the siblings which provided a heartfelt and at times intense glimpse into their lives.
What stood out about this performance was the writing: the script perfectly encapsulated the tone of the Brontës’ writing and it felt like watching a novel brought to life. The vocabulary choices dripped with the literary prowess of the sisters and immersed the audience within the 19th century setting, and the script was brilliantly brought to life by the four young actors, who each gave performances that exuded an air of authenticity and earnestness, each giving their character a unique and distinguishable personality.
However, the pitfall of performing a play about already famous characters is the audience already knew where it is going. Inherently, the story of the Brontë’s is hardly action packed, but this lead to the play relying heavily on emotional dialogue between characters rather than any considerable action, and this caused some repetitiveness. Furthermore, the staging of the play was occasionally not well-thought out for the space, with characters taking to sitting together on the floor during emotional dialogue, leaving everyone but the front row unable to see them.
Nevertheless, this was a touching, well-written, and beautifully performed show. If you are a fan of the Brontë sisters, then this is certainly the performance for you.
More Myself Than I Am is running until 29 August at Space 1 at theSpace on the Mile. Buy tickets here.
Image provided by Talking Shadows Theatre as press material.
