Bird Grove tells the story of Mary Anne Evans, played by Elizabeth Dulau. Set in 1841, Mary Anne is living with her widowed father, Robert (Owen Teale), and Isaac (Joyon Coy), her brother. As her father is getting older, Isaac is concerned about his sister’s future. After all, during that period, women couldn’t live independently and needed a husband to keep them or work in service.
Robert recognising that his daughter has something special about her and although he is hurt by her independent attitude and outspoken demeanour, he gave her the gift of education from the age of 8 years old by allowing her to read all the books that she wanted to and filling the bookshelves inside their home, Bird Grove.
This production has been written as the backstory of the famous author George Elliott the male pseudonym that the female author went on to publish under, as she understood that publishing under a lady’s name would have meant that the novels would not have been taken seriously or published.
Sarah Beaton has created a grand and elegant high ceiling stage, with a turntable centre allowing the furniture assembled on it to move around and change the room inside the house without lots of time-consuming scene changes. There are two streamlined bookshelves which dominate either side of the turntable, which are full of bound books.
Full of frustration and rage after her father’s death and the unfair split of his property between his children. Mary Anne launches some of the books from the shelves reading out well-known literary names that had influenced her education.
Bird Grove gathers pace throughout the play and the tensions between Mary Anne and her father change as she gets older. Pushing back on society’s expectations of her as a woman and knowing that she was destined to do something else with her life.
For more information about Bird Grove and future productions at Hampstead Theatre please use the link below.
Four Stars.
Photo credit by Johan Persson.
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
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