Underdog: The Other Other Brontë: your audio described introduction
This is an audio introduction to our production of Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, written by Sarah Gordon and directed by Natalie Ibu.
These include information about the pre-show touch tour, some background to the play and descriptions of the set, costume and characters. They are available as an audio file, as a word document and in full on this web page for screen readers.
The production lasts about 2 hours and 15 minutes, including a 20 minute interval.
Click here for the transcript of the audio file as a Word docx
It is also available here on this page:
The story opens on the windy Pennine moors around the village of Haworth, home to the Brontê family.
A circular playing area about six metres in diameter is entirely covered by a mound of moorland, made up of pink and purple heathers, bleached wild grasses, sedges and bracken, and the tall spikes of foxgloves with their tubular purple flowers. At the beginning of the play the whole mound lifts to hang over the space, exposing the long roots and the dark, mysterious undergrowth that dangles beneath.
From here the story moves to the parsonage at Haworth. The year is 1837. Now the space is a circular disc painted black but grazed with use, leaving patches of pale wood visible. It sits a step up from a black floor about 10 metres wide. In the centre of the disc is a circle about 3 metres in diameter with a scuffed cross dividing it into quarters. This circle can revolve. Around it is a ring about a metre wide, which also revolves both clockwise and anticlockwise, bringing token items of furniture to represent places in the story and taking the characters long distances as they trudge against the direction it turns. Their feet have worn a pale path.
At the rear is a high wooden wall, about three metres tall at its highest point, painted black but worn to bare wood at the top, where it undulates like the hills around Haworth. There’s an arched entrance on either side, with only darkness beyond.
The revolving ring glides through one entrance, reappearing through the other with its burden of furniture.
There are eight cast members, four who play the sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne and their brother Branwell, and an ensemble of four who play all the other characters, irrespective of their gender.
The costumes are of the mid 19th century, albeit with a modern twist here and there. The sisters’ skirts are ankle length, given a full, bell-shaped silhouette by layers of colourful frilled petticoats that have the effect of emphasising their waists.
They have chunky, black leather, lace-up boots.
The parsonage at Haworth is represented by a few pieces of battered, but decent quality dark wooden furniture. At the back of the space there’s a small square table with a drawer in the front, and legs ending in tapered ‘spade’ feet.
To the right is a simple black painted chapel chair with a ledge on the back to hold prayer books, and another occasional table holding a decanter of brandy and a pile of books. Later a white painted wooden bed with a thin mattress and white bedclothes is brought in on the revolving ring to suggest a bedroom.
The story takes place over the years between 1837 when Charlotte was 21, Emily 19, and Anne 17, and ends after Charlotte’s death in 1855.
The story is narrated to us by the eldest sister, Charlotte, looking back over the women’s lives. She’s white with a medium build. Her dark wavy hair is in a short, unkempt bob, with a side parting, and she has a sly, knowing smile. Charlotte struts around with an air of authority and confidence in her abilities. She has a checked bodice made of shimmering scarlet silk, with ¾ length sleeves and a high rounded neckline. Her matching scarlet skirt is full, softly pleated, and ankle-length, with yellow and red petticoats beneath. The colour makes her the brightest spot in every room.
Emily has a light-brown complexion and dark brown curly hair tied back in a practical high ponytail, with a few curls hanging loose. Her petite figure has a tomboyish quality, as she seeks to stand her ground, or take on her older sister, sometimes lounging back in a chair, feet apart.
Emily’s skirt has a checkered pattern in shades of blue. It’s teamed with an indigo blue blouse, with a lighter blue waistcoat over the top.
Youngest sister, Anne, is fair-skinned and slim, of average height, and has a foreshortened left arm. Modest and reserved, Anne is a watchful presence, often shyly fiddling with this and that, but can become playfully animated when excited. She has blonde hair, tied back with a centre parting and hanging to her shoulders. Anne’s bodice and skirt are mauve, with a faint floral pattern. The bodice buttons up the front and has ¾ length sleeves and the skirt has a deep frill at the hem. Although she doesn’t always voice her opinions, Anne’s expressive face speaks volumes.
Their older brother, Branwell, is in his early 20’s, with a medium build. He’s played by an actor of British-Chinese heritage. Often under the influence, Branwell stomps about heavily, his movements unpredictable as he expresses his frustrations. His dark hair is floppy and messy. He wears mustard-coloured, baggy corduroy trousers with burgundy braces, and a scruffy grey shirt, with sleeves pushed up, under a beige plaid waistcoat. His shirt has a high, stiffened stock collar with a white cravat, tied in an untidy bow. Calf-length black leather boots complete Branwell’s outfit.
In addition to the family members, the Ensemble of four male actors interact playfully with the Brontës, with one another, and with the audience, as they help the story along. They’re in their 20’s or 30’s, 2 are Black and 2 white. Often they represent a group of characters, such as critics or authors. Sometimes they take on individual characters, with a slightly heightened quality represented in their costume, voice, or physicality.
As the ensemble, they’re all dressed in short red jackets with stand-up collars and black buttons, high-waisted dark grey trousers, braces, and heavy black boots with red laces. The trousers and boots remain a constant whichever character they take on, including the ladies. The ensemble’s jackets are made of the same material as Charlotte’s outfit, as they serve as extensions of her, fulfilling her desires and aiding her in conveying the story and recreating the memories.
As authors and literary critics, they wear identical floor-length cloaks, blue, with vertical white stripes. A matching top hat sports a smoking pipe on top, drifting curls of smoke. Thin, wire rimmed glasses are perched on their noses and they all have extravagant blue moustaches and pink or green carnations in their buttonholes. At this point, the actor playing Branwell joins the ensemble, to create a group of five. They sit stiffly, bolt upright on elegantly curved pale wooden chairs.
In the second half of the play, a members’ club arrives in the form of graceful potted ferns, little tables covered with plates of finger foods, a brass drinks trolley groaning with spirits, and a drinks cabinet in the shape of a globe. They line the front of the space on the revolving ring. The globe doubles as a disco ball, bouncing light around the room. The club members, in open gold waistcoats and grey trousers treat the club like a second home.
Individual characters emerge from the ensemble including the aloof and condescending Mrs Ingham, from whom Anne seeks employment as a governess. Mrs Ingham’s dress is a frilly, ruched orange affair with matching hat. Her precocious 8-year-old son, Cunliffe, stomps around in a white tunic top with an orange plaid sailor collar, white shorts, and orange knee-length socks.
Professor Heger is a self-regarding Belgian language teacher, romantically handsome, wearing light-purple stockings and knee length plum-coloured brocade breeches, with a dark purple waistcoat over a full-sleeved white shirt. There’s a lustrous pink and purple sash around his waist. Heger peers solemnly at a book through wire rimmed spectacles, once he’s found the right way up to read it.
Still in his red jacket and black trousers, Headteacher, Mr Brocklehurst quickly dons a flat mortar board and brandishes a cane.
George Smith is Charlotte’s publisher, dark haired and debonair. He’s in dark grey trousers with a white shirt and a gold striped waistcoat, a huge floppy gold bow tied around his throat. Anne’s publisher, Thomas Newby, dresses similarly, though a little sloppily, with his brown cravat hanging loose around his neck and red wine stains on his gold waistcoat.
A maid, Tabby, arrives in a green ankle-length skirt with a red jacket and a frilly white apron, complete with white mob cap.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte’s biographer, is a formidable presence in a blue silk bodice patterned in a purple check with a pink bow at the neck. The matching skirt has hip pads beneath, giving her a wide silhouette, and the front is cut high, revealing the ensemble member’s trousers and boots. Mrs Gaskell is resplendent in a large and elaborately flowered bonnet.
Other incidental characters and the token pieces of furniture that make up other, fleeting settings will be described as they appear.
Cast and production credits
Charlotte Bronte – Gemma Whelan.
Emily Bronte – Adele James.
Anne Bronte – Rhiannon Clements.
Branwell Bronte – James Phoon.
The Ensemble
Nick Blakeley – who also plays Mrs Ingham and Elizabeth Gaskell.
Adam Donaldson – Headmaster Mr Brocklehurst and Anne’s publisher, Thomas Newby.
Kwaku Mills – the boisterous Cunliffe and Tabby the maid.
Julian Moore-Cooke – the romantic Professor Heger and debonair George Smith.
Movement Director – Ingrid Mackinnon.
Sound Designer – Alexandra Faye Braithwaite.
Lighting Designer – Zoe Spurr.
Set & Costume Designer – Grace Smart.
Director – Natalie Ibu.