JANE/EYRE Comes to Buntport Theatre Next Month

JANE/EYRE, the first full-length show from Denver’s Grapefruit Lab, is an exploration of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre — with original songs by Teacup Gorilla and Dameon Merkl (Lost Walks, Bad Luck City). Adapted by author/musician, Miriam Suzanne, and local director/performance maker Julie Rada, the hybrid play/concert takes a dark and often humorous look at the early feminist novel — bringing a contemporary, queer perspective to Jane’s story. 

Performances run Friday, January 17th - Saturday, February 1st, 2025 at Buntport Theater. Tickets go on sale January 1, 2025. All tickets are name-your-own-price. Credit online or cash at the door.

Published in 1847, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography was the first novel by Charlotte Brontë, written under the intentionally-androgynous pseudonym Currer Bell. “We had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice,” Brontë wrote later. The novel is entirely written from Jane’s perspective, as she takes that world of prejudice head-on — struggling with issues of class, religion, gender, and sexuality along the way.

Don’t believe the hype about Mr. Rochester, this story is much more than one romantic plot-point. “The novel has a defiant attitude from page one of the preface, refusing to be set aside” says Miriam Suzanne, who plays in the band and narrates as an older Jane, looking-back on the action. “Brontë and Jane don’t just have a story, they have an agenda.” Julie Rada plays Brontë on stage, as she and Jane create the story together — or despite each other. Denver actress and BETC company member, Lindsey Pierce, plays Jane in-the-action, with Joan Bruemmer-Holden, company member with Boulder’s The Catamounts, providing all the additional characters, from Rochester to several women “friends” that Jane also considers living with in the novel.

Grapefruit Lab is the combined vision and multimedia experience of Julie Rada, Kenny Storms, and Miriam Suzanne. We strive for a more just and humane world through hybrid performance, embracing the queerness in human experience, where collaborative art is an ongoing practice of radical community and collective healing. We are humans first, and performance is an embodied process for imagining, exploring, and deepening our humanity. “We want to make art without assumptions,” Suzanne says, “Art that humanizes, and entertains, and challenges, and brings you into conversation.”

Teacup Gorilla is a petite & deadly ground-dwelling band that inhabits the china shops of Denver with angular riffs, twisted stories, and obtuse stomping. Daniel, Miriam, and Sondra have been playing/fighting together over ten years, across a wide range of genres & media. They have performed at book releases and bars, poetry readings, and hard-core house shows — composed live theater soundtracks, and founded The Bakery arts warehouse. Maybe they're a multimedia project with post-rock tendencies, or maybe an indie band with dark sounds and wild ideas. We might never know. Ask Jane Goodall.

For this project, they added Dameon Merkl to the lineup — already known for his gothic storytelling and music. Sometimes the band underscores the action like a film. At other times, they are the action, interrupting to perform full songs. Several evenings, the night’s production will also feature local musicians as an opening act.

To pre-order the Jane/Eyre album (vinyl) — featuring eight original songs from the show by Teacup Gorilla and album art by Miriam Suzanne — visit the pre-order page.