You On The Moors Now

The rehearsal process for "You On The Moors Now" was a delight. The pandemic is still very much affecting live performing arts and before we talk bout the play, we want to extend a huge and heartfelt "thank you" to everyone involved and to everyone who helped the production come to fruition - your work, time, talent, joy, energy, and thoughtfulness are all so very deeply valued. We are full of thanks and gratitude. Thank you.

Why would we put on a play about four novels published in the 1800s in 2022? Fantastic question. In this play, Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen), Jo March (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott), Cathy (Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte) and Jane (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte) break out of the worlds of the classic novels in which they exist and form an allyship with one another. Their stories are remixed, and they are put in conversation with one another, unmoored from time, place, and, at times, from the plot of their respective novels. These beloved books have stood the test of time in part because audiences have continued to identify with the main characters and their struggles refusing to fit in and questioning the norm, fighting for their beliefs, and finding love in unconventional (for the period) ways. As a quick refresher, a few things to remember about each of these four heroines: Jane refuses to marry Rochester after finding out he has a second wife in the attic. Elizabeth Bennet is rich, but not as rich as Darcy. Jo March goes to New York to work on a career in journalism despite facing gender inequality. Cathy navigates the need for women to marry advantageously while holding onto her love for Heathcliff. Their stories are ones that challenged the cultural structures of gender in their time, just as Alcott, Austen, and the Brontes challenged those same structures in their own lives (for instance, none of these four authors ever married). In every generation of storytelling these heroines fight against cultural structures. Playwright Jaclyn Backhaus reimagines here their rebellions agains the patriarchy in a collage, maintaining the contexts and characters of these well-known stories while creating new connections and dynamic juxtapositions.
- Nora Cashman, Caro Elliott, & Eleni Papaleonardos