The production is set to open at the  Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford on 9th September 2027 before embarking on a UK tour.

The Yvonne Arnauld Theatre and Shared Experience their co-production of a new stage adaptation of Anne Brontë’s pioneering novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which has been adapted for the stage by Katherine Moar and directed by Joanna Read.

Following its run at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, the production will then head to Oxford, Bath, Blackpool, Eastbourne and Malvern with other venues to be confirmed.

With tickets set to go on sale on the 6th November, casting and creative team has yet to be announced.

Commenting on the announcement, Joanna Read says: “It is with great pleasure that we can announce this new production in partnership with our co-producers, Shared Experience. Katherine is a dazzling writing talent, and we were thrilled to commission her to adapt Anne Brontë’s trailblazing novel about a woman’s fight for domestic independence and creative freedom. We look forward to bringing this emotional, gripping and shockingly relevant story to life on stage, both here at the Yvonne Arnaud and in theatres up and down the country.” 

Who is the mysterious tenant of Wildfell Hall? High on the Yorkshire fells, isolated from society, Helen lives with her son in the ruined and desolate Wildfell Hall. Content until the intrusions of her gossiping neighbours and the affections of local farmer Gilbert force her to reveal her devastating story. 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the compelling story of a woman fleeing a perilous marriage to find safety for her child and her pursuit of a self-sufficient life, eventually finding love on her own terms. Written in the mid-19th century, Anne Brontë’s radical and redemptive novel challenged contemporary notions of a woman’s place in society and is now considered to be one of the first feminist novels.  

   

Maratona Sorelle Brontë
November 7, 2026 |15:30 h
Il Circolo dei lettori, via Bogino 9, Torino

Le sorelle Brontë hanno scritto romanzi immortali, capolavori della narrativa ottocentesca pieni di pathos ed emozione. Ai romanzi si aggiungono i versi, nei quali emerge il fascino della natura selvaggia delle brughiere dello Yorkshire, tra distese d’erica, roccia e foschia. Un pomeriggio per riscoprire le loro voci, tra incanto, disperazione e il desiderio insopprimibile di affermare la propria identità.

>> h 15.3o

Catherine e Heathcliff. Il cuore selvaggio dell’amore

con Liliana Rampello

Due protagonisti indimenticabili e un amore travolgente: in Cime tempestose Emily Brontë racconta il fantasma dell’eros e dell’eccesso, e un desiderio indicibile che la società vittoriana perbene tiene sepolto nelle sue viscere. È un’attrazione irresistibile, suggellata nell’infanzia, che diventa il destino di due famiglie per tre generazioni.

>> h 16.30

Jane Eyre. Amare senza perdersi

con Carolina Capria

«L’ho sposato, lettore»: con queste parole – una delle citazioni più celebri della letteratura inglese – Charlotte Brontë compie una rivoluzione. Attraverso Jane Eyre e Mr Rochester esploriamo una relazione che sfida le gerarchie del suo tempo e immagina un amore fondato sulla parità, la libertà e il riconoscimento reciproco.

>> h 17.30

Il giardino e la brughiera

con Susanna Basso

Dopo aver lavorato alle edizioni italiane di Jane Austen, la traduttrice si è incamminata nella brughiera in compagnia di Jane Eyre, affrontando il capolavoro di Charlotte Brontë. Il lavoro non è stato semplice e lo racconta in questo incontro condividendo pensieri e sensazioni che l’hanno accompagnata nel corso di questo lungo viaggio.

Further information in La Repubblica. 

   

The Poetry of Emily Brontë

by Dr. Greta Colombani

November 7, 18:00 GMT

Zoom

Greta Colombani on the strange and powerful poetry of Emily Brontë.

During her short, private life, Emily Brontë agreed to share with readers outside her family only twenty-one of her poems, which appeared in the first book published by the Brontë sisters under pseudonyms and at their own expense: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846). Far from spontaneous, this act of sharing was prompted by a violation that had at first infuriated her. Charlotte had come up with the idea for the collection after discovering the notebooks where Emily had been secretly transcribing the poems she had been writing since her teenage years. 

While the book ended up only selling two copies one year after publication, Emily’s poetry continues to attract and captivate readers today as a possible window into the soul of one of the most elusive and mysterious figures in English literature. This lecture will offer a journey through the lyrical depth, visionary intensity, and rich variety of Emily’s published and unpublished poems, from her fierce confrontations with loss, confinement, and her own mortality, to her evocations of the sublime, solitary wildness of the moors, to the several tales of violence, passion, and betrayal set in Gondal, the mythic country that she had invented with Anne as young adolescents and that never ceased to haunt her imagination.

Set text: Emily Brontë, Complete Poems, ed. Janet Gezari (Penguin, 1992). Greta will focus on particular poems from this volume; details will be sent to everyone who books.

   

“We are talking about the Victorian period, after all,” says Sue Newby, learning officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England. But even still, these critics were the minority. The book was an immediate bestseller, and has only grown more popular in the nearly 180 years since. 

That’s why Ms. Newby – and many parents – are so stumped by the novel’s recent debut on PEN America’s banned books list. This year, at least three Texas school districts restricted access to the novel as state lawmakers try to rid public school libraries of what they consider explicit content. 

Even more perplexing is where the book is being celebrated: China. The country known for its strict internet and literary censorship just made “Jane Eyre” required reading for ninth graders from Beijing to Chengdu. The mixed reception hints at authorities’ shifting priorities in both countries. 

“Maybe this isn’t the truth anymore, but we still think of America as being this kind of bastion of liberal values, and we think of China as being the opposite,” Ms. Newby says. “It’s very ironic.” 

Reader, nobody knows. 

Two Texas school districts – McAllen and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City – have announced plans to move “Jane Eyre” out of middle school libraries, citing compliance with Senate Bill 13. That’s a law passed last year that redefines what qualifies as harmful, indecent, or profane content in library books. New Braunfels’ school district went a step further, restricting the title to advanced literature students only.

Yet supporters of the bill, which also gives parents and school districts greater oversight of school library catalogs, say that books like “Jane Eyre” were never the intended targets.

“‘Jane Eyre’ is not profane, it is not indecent,” says Bonnie Wallace, a grassroots activist who helped lead the campaign to scrutinize the content of public school libraries. She suspects that some school districts “are going well beyond the intention of SB13 and trying to make it seem like [the law] is overreaching or exclusionary or reactionary.”

Another theory: These districts have all used AI “pretty extensively,” says Anne Russey, co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, which might have erroneously flagged “Jane Eyre” as problematic.

To be sure, the novel tackles some heavy themes, including mental illness. But Abigail Gordy, a mother who recently moved with her family from Schertz, Texas, to San Antonio because of the book bans, says these things are part of life.

“There’s nothing in there that’s too dark for an intermediate child to read. They see way worse online,” she says, adding that restricting children’s access to books “makes us closed-minded.”

Ms. Newby calls it a “perfect transition novel,” teaching teens resilience, compassion, and the importance of speaking truth to power as they start to confront the adult world for the first time. [...]

Her story has taught generations of young readers “to love ourselves and other people around us,” says Zhao Dongqing, a mother and physician in Beijing. “It’s very good for teenagers to read – as well as for adults.” 

For Ethan Huang, a ninth-grade student who recently finished reading “Jane Eyre,” it was the childhood scenes that resonated the most – particularly when a young Jane stood up to her principal. “This made me think,” he says, standing outside a large bookstore in the Xidan neighborhood of Beijing. “I can take the initiative. When the teacher says something wrong, I will point [it] out.”

“How students respond to Rochester has changed quite a lot,” says Ms. Newby. “Young girls are much less romantic about him than I used to be.” 

Instead, they’re more likely to see Jane’s marriage as “a cop out,” and say she “should have blazed her own trail and gone off traveling” at the end. (Lindsey McGinnis)