Nadia Clifford plays Jane Eyre at the Birmingham REP
It took Nadia Clifford approximately 0.2 seconds to accept her dream role as Jane Eyre. Actually, that’s not true. It took less than that for her to break into a scream after her agent called to say she’d landed the part.
The people she was walking past, in London’s Soho, looked on aghast as she squealed with joy.
“It was after my third audition, I was on my way to meet a friend for lunch, by which point I was emotionally invested in the role and the show.
“My agent called 20 minutes after I left the audition with Sally, the director, and told me. I was in the middle of Soho and I just screamed down the phone. Anyone who was in the vicinity of me for 20 yards must have thought I was a mad woman. I was thrilled.”
Nadia is, of course, anything but mad. An avowed Charlotte Brontë fan, she is quite literally playing her dream role in the National Theatre’s production of Jane Eyre, which runs at Birmingham’s REP from Monday until September 16 as part of a major 21-city tour of the UK.
This year marks the 170th anniversary of the first publication of Jane Eyre – and Charlotte Brontë’s much-loved story of the trailblazing Jane is still as inspiring as ever. The National Theatre’s bold and dynamic production tells the story of one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfilment.
From her beginnings as a destitute orphan, Jane Eyre’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.
Nadia had read the novel several times before auditioning for the role. Her first read through was as a 14-year-old, while she immersed herself again at 21 before re-reading it twice for the role.
“It’s a mammoth role and so I wasn’t taking it lightly. I wasn’t allowing myself to fantasise about getting it. It was so beyond the realms of possibility I just didn’t want to make a fool of myself. I was pinching myself when it eventually happened.”
“It’s funny because reading it with the knowledge that I was going to be playing the role meant I read it in a different way to someone just enjoying the work of Charlotte Brontë. What was really amazing when I read it knowing I’d got the role was that it catapulted me back to my teens. I felt a strong sense of identification with a kindred spirit, which so many people feel.
“Jane Eyre is universal at articulating love and anger and jealousy. It’s an enriching experience to read good writing. It makes you feel acknowledged in your own emotional state.”
In Sally Cookson’s highly-acclaimed staging, Nadia plays Jane Eyre with Tim Delap as Rochester. They are joined by Hannah Bristow (Helen Burns/Adele/St John/Grace Poole/Abbot), Matthew Churcher (Musician), Alex Heane (Musician), Melanie Marshall (Bertha Mason), Paul Mundell (Mr Brocklehurst/Pilot/Mason), David Ridley (musician), Evelyn Miller (Bessie/Blanche Ingram/Diana) and Lynda Rook (Mrs Reed/Mrs Fairfax). The cast is completed by Ben Cutler, Jenny Johns, Dami Olukoya, Francesca Tomlinson and Phoebe Vigor.
The exciting new stage version of Jane Eyre was originally presented in two parts at Bristol Old Vic, and then transferred to the National Theatre, re-imagined as a single performance, playing to sold-out houses at the NT’s Lyttelton Theatre.
Nadia says she pours herself into the role: “I think that in order to be authentic with your performance you have to draw on your own emotions and experience. That can be quite a painful thing to do. You are accessing little boxes that are hidden away.
“You can’t splash around in those dark emotions during the normal course of a day without doing some serious damage to your mental health. But I have to access those places and when I am on stage. I still have to draw on personal experience and relationships and events from my life to bring truth and honesty to Jane’s journey.
“OK, so I’m not an orphan and I don’t know what it’s like to be traumatised as a child, like she is in that relationship with Mrs Reid. But I know loneliness and frustration and I know what it is to be overwhelmed by emotions. They are all in Jane’s frame of reference. As an actor, you have a tool box and those are in mine.”
Nadia grew up in Manchester. As a teen, she was a super, uber, ultimate, turbo fan of the Brontë sisters. She wasn’t far from Howarth and would visit the parsonage where they grew up.
“I am a big fan of all the sisters work and I love period dramas. Howarth is an amazing place. It’s such an incredible place to be. It’s so isolated and it’s so humming with this energy. It’s so cut off. Knowing how intelligent and analytical all three of the sisters were was very important to me. They had to work hard. Because of their gender, they couldn’t come out and earn a living as novelists. They had nothing like the recognition they had after their lifetime.”
Jane Eyre remains a bona fide classic – as enjoyable for the cast and crew as it is for the audience.
Nadia adds: “It’s a massive rollercoaster. We haven’t had a moment to think. We travel on a Sunday, perform Monday to Saturday with 8 shows a week and each show is three hours. I never leave the stage. But it’s amazing to be involved in this whirlwind that completely swallows up you. I’ve had to forsake everything in my life for now, it’s full on. We have a holiday coming up soon and I am really looking forward to downtime so that I can reboot.
“But being part of this, with the National, really is a dream.”
l For tickets visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk
