The hit show from Shared Experience Theatre Company based on the tortured and passionate life of Jean Rhys and her most famous book, Wide Sargasso Sea, the prequel to Jane Eyre. In Wide Sargasso Sea – 'one of the works of genius of the 20th century' The Times – Jean Rhys first gave voice to Bertha Mason, Mr Rochester's first wife in Jane Eyre. Polly Teale's play is a dramatisation of Rhys' life, placing Bertha on stage throughout as Jean's alter ego, and giving full vent to her obsession with the 'mad woman in the attic'. After Mrs Rochester was first staged at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in July 2003 by Shared Experience Theatre Company.