The show looks gorgeous

The Times publishes about Tamasha's Wuthering Heights which is now touring the UK. The next stops are Exeter Northcott (Tue 7 – Sat 11 Apr) and the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow (Tue 21 – Sat 25 Apr 2009). Just after that, the company will arrive in London and don't forget that you have a chance of seeing them there during the first week for free!

Yorkshire’s windswept moors are not the most obvious choice to twin with the sultry deserts of Rajasthan. The convoluted narrative of Wuthering Heights bears little resemblance to the all-singing, all-dancing melodrama of a typical Bollywood movie. But, unlikely as it sounds, a Bollywood-style stage adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel, reimagined in 19th-century India by the former EastEnders star Deepak Verma, will soon be swirling into the Citizens Theatre, bringing some dusty glamour and Hindi jokes to the deepest Gorbals.
Tamasha, a British-Asian theatre company, has taken the bones of Bronte’s narrative, kept the themes that work with the broad brushstroke Bollywood style of story-telling and created something recognisable to anyone who recalls the book from fourth-year English. It is also perfectly charming to those whose teenage attention wandered elsewhere. The retina-burning costumes and lip-synching are straight out of Mumbai, but this is bonsai Bollywood, with a cast of 11 rather than 150, and without the ugly racial stereotypes or over-the-top dance scenes that pop up in the movies.
For the director, Kristine Landon-Smith, who founded Tamasha in London 20 years ago, Bollywood and Bronte were an obvious match. “When Deepak brought the idea to us, to put Wuthering Heights into an Indian context, I thought, ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ I could immediately see how it would work: the characters are archetypes, there are epic landscapes — these are the classic elements of Indian cinema.”
Setting it in 19th-century Rajasthan gave Verma a hierarchical social structure, similar to the rigid society in which Bronte was writing. The family and the village were the important social units, men and women had narrowly defined roles and marriage was for life. While the climate could not be more different, the sweeping sandscapes of northern India can be as grand, and as alien, as Bronte’s vistas.
“The writing can pick up the archetypes and the big themes,” says Landon-Smith. “And we can keep the heightened playing style, but play it on the right side.”
“This is,” she says, “contained Bollywood. But the primary-coloured themes, the presentational aspects, these were the kinds of things we wanted to tease out. We also felt there was an equivalent landscape. Visually, it certainly had potential.”
That is an understatement: the show looks gorgeous, from the Christmas-card camels in the opening scene to an extravagant set piece at the camel races, which winks heavily towards the umbrella scene in My Fair Lady. The saris are as luscious as a box of milk sweets and Youkti Patel, who plays Shakuntala (Cathy), is a Bollywood-standard beauty. Pushpinder Chani, Krishan (Heathcliff) is at his brooding best in a simple white kurta and baggy white trousers, emphasising his humble origins as a street urchin adopted by a magnanimous benefactor. Later on, when he returns dripping with new-found wealth, he appears to have taken a jewel-encrusted dressing gown out of the nearest dressing-up box. His turban is so high and magnificent it may topple off his head at any moment.
The music is, in the best Bollywood tradition, recorded by playback singers. The stars lip-synch with the tape to great effect, although the dancing is, by the genre’s standards, so restrained as to be almost standing still. This, says Landon-Smith, was dictated by the plot: there was not an obvious space for a spectacular sari-swirling number. That’s not to say that one could not be worked in: “If we took the show to, for example, the west end, we could certainly put one in.”
Verma, best known as Sanjay in EastEnders, previously adapted the 19th-century French tragedy Thérèse Raquin for Tamasha. Wuthering Heights, described by Landon-Smith as “the biggest thing we’ve ever done”, was a collaboration between Verma, the songwriter tasked with composing 11 narrative-driving numbers, and the producer, who added some text while the show was in rehearsal. Ten years is the standard incubation period for a musical; this one went from concept to first night in three and a half.
It is not, says Landon-Smith, an easy format to get right. But with all the elements in place, she has high hopes that a larger, even more lavish version may emerge. After Glasgow the show transfers to the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in London, then on to Newcastle, Southampton, Coventry and Harrogate, but there are fingers crossed that it may be destined for even greater things.
“There has been some gentle interest,” Landon-Smith says cautiously. “I do think this has commercial potential and we have to think how we would size this up while still keeping it affordable,” — by enlarging, for example, the chorus of village girls and giving them a series of dance numbers. (Anna Burnside)

The Kalamazoo Gazette reviews (enthusiastically) another Brontë-related production. Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre. The Musical at the Farmers Alley's Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan:

Incredible vocals, stunning sets, flawless costuming and impeccable timing. These are just a few of the many elements that make the musical adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" one of the most lavish and splendidly produced theater offerings to grace a Kalamazoo stage.
Friday's opening-night performance at the Farmers Alley Theatre brought this classic tale of misery, deceit, love and redemption to life in a way that only director Kathy Mulay and her perfectly cast ensemble of actors could have envisioned.
Denene Mulay Koch (Jane) and Jeremy Koch (Edward Fairfax Rochester) transcend their roles in such a dynamic and passionate way that it's easy to forget you are in downtown Kalamazoo and not the rolling hillsides of Bronte's beloved England.
Helping to create this illusion is one of the most creative and visually stunning uses of sliding screens and projected imaging, from detailed interior and exterior shots of Rochester's home to the countryside's misty graveyards and hillsides.
Breanne Bishop (young Jane) captures both the dire loneliness and strength of spirit embodied in her young character. Asked if she knows what to do to avoid "swimming in the fires of hell" for her alleged deceitfulness, Bishop's perfectly timed response "I must keep in good health and never die!" drew laughter from the audience.
Sophia Dely, as Adele, is both charming and delightful to watch -- truly a "breaker of hearts in training," as Rochester playfully describes his young ward.
Although child actors, Breanne and Sophia exhibit the same sense of passion and professionalism as the rest of the cast, which includes the incredible talents and comedic timing of Shay Moore as Rochester's maid, Mrs. Halifax. (Think the rhymes of Dr. Seuss meets actor Robin Williams' character "Mrs. Doubtfire.")
Of particular honor was the pleasure of seeing Kenneth Young's performance as both Mr. Brocklehurst and the vicar. To have an actor of his caliber on a Kalamazoo stage -- after 20 years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York -- is truly a coup for director Mulay, the cast and community.
The ultimate compliment to Mulay and the cast, however, was one uttered by my companion as we left the theater: "I need to stop at the bookstore tomorrow and get a copy of 'Jane Eyre' ... I can't believe what I've been missing!"
Any production that can do that -- ignite a fire in the audience to learn more about the wonderful characters being portrayed on stage -- is certainly worth your time, money and patronage. (Thea Lapham)

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Wuthering Heights connections have reached even Nepal. We read in the Nepali Wave Magazine:

In the end it is their impossible, forbidden love that interests readers rather than the main plot. Though the reader is reminded of Romeo and Juliet or even Catherine and Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) because of their melancholic love story, the reader does hope for more from Bella and Edward unlike the characters from the tragedy. Meyer throughout the story is positive about their relationship and, through the sequels we can feel ourselves hoping for their relationship to last. (Shradha Basnyat)

Via the RTÉ Sport section on Monday Night Soccer we have traced a modern-day relative of the Brontës: football (or soccer) player Sean Prunty (whose side of the family has kept the old spelling), who is sadly having to retire from the game due to a heart condition and who was recently on that Irish sports TV show. (Picture Source. Credits: Inpho).

I also learned that Mr Prunty is related to Emily Brontë (author of 'Wuthering Heights') and her sisters. So when he waxes lyrical in future programmes, you'll know that he comes from a long line of wordsmiths. In fact he's gone one better, because as far as I'm aware Emily Brontë never appeared on a football show as a pundit. (Con Murphy)

Le Cinéma de Gerry14 has uploaded a slideshow inspired by André Téchiné's Les Soeurs Brontë film, MMIX is reading Shirley, L.Karap. and Meia Palavra (in Portuguese) post a brief account of Charlotte Brontë's life; Danielle's Book Thoughts reviews Jane Eyre and Una habitación con vistas posts about Jane Eyre 2006 (in Spanish). Finally, Mackeson has uploaded a picture to flickr inspired by Jane Eyre's first chapter.

Categories: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Shirley, Theatre, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights