Wuthering Heights Touring Wales

A new production of Wuthering Heigths adapted by Lucy Gough opens today in Wales:

An Aberystwyth Arts Centre Production
Wuthering Heights 
Adapted by Lucy Gough
Directed by Mark Babych.

I was going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home: and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth, and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights: where I woke sobbing for joy.
Emily Brontë’s gothic tale of tortured love is brought to the stage in all its turbulent, passionate glory. Long before ‘Twilight’ stirred the emotions, Wuthering Heights embodied the eternal pull between good and evil, dark and light, and heaven and hell.
This exhilarating and vibrant adaptation of the literary classic brings to life the all-encompassing love between the silent, brooding Heathcliff and the emotionally unstable Catherine. Their destructive relationship is one of the most enduring love stories of English literature.
First broadcast as a Radio 4 drama for Woman’s Hour in 2003 (‘Unmissable’ Radio Times), writer Lucy Gough has now adapted the work for the stage. It is directed by award winning Mark Babych.

Touring Wales:

Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth -March 16-19 at (7.30pm)
Clwyd Theatr Cymru March 22, 23 (7.45pm); Matinee March 23 01:00pm
The Riverfront; Newport  March 25 (2:30pm 7.30pm), March 26 (7.30pm)
Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan 29 Mar, (19:30) and 30 Mar (10:00, 19:30)
Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea Thu 31st Mar - Sat 2nd Apr
Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon 6 Apr, (19:30) and 5 Apr (19:30)
Theatr Hafren, Newtown  April 8th, 7:45 PM April 9th, 7:45 PM

Western Mail interviews Lucy Gough:

“I did an adaptation of Wuthering Heights for BBC Radio 4 a few years ago, which was more than 15 episodes” she says.
“Aberystwyth Arts Centre heard it and we started talking about the possibility of doing it for the stage, which has finally happened.” (...)
“After studying the book so much for both adaptations I’m aware that it’s so much more than a love story really,” says Gough. “It’s really quite savage. The second half of the book, which focuses on cruelty, often gets forgotten.
“Emily Brontë was so young when she wrote of such uncompromising cruelty and both times I’ve adapted the book I’ve been full of admiration for her. I would have loved to have met her. She was such a fascinating woman.”
Gough admits that it’s tough adapting a literary classic for different mediums.
“You have got to find a way into the novel and present it in different ways,” she says.
“You can’t stage the whole thing so you have to make choices. You have to get to the heart of the book and I think it’s a wonderful book – it’s passionate, uncompromising and stunning really. Both times I’ve worked on it I’ve loved it. The trick is to be true to the story but also bring something fresh to it.”
Gough says that she started off the adaptations by picking up the novel and “reading it and reading it and reading it”.
She says: “I just dismantled the book and basically unpicked it and put it back together in a different form.
“For the radio series I gave the house a voice so it was a character who spoke. With radio you can do that. The house has such a presence that I didn’t want to lose it.”
So was it any easier doing an adaptation of Wuthering Heights second time round?
“I thought it was going to be,” she laughs.
“I think the fact I knew the book so well helped and this time round it’s a shorter piece – I had to do five hours for radio but just over two hours for the stage. So I had to take it back even further to its bones without losing the heart of it.”
Gough spent many months adapting the book for the stage as she fitted it around other projects.
And she saw the characters coming to life when she attended the first day of rehearsals with director Mark Babych. (...)
During the next few weeks she hopes that people will enjoy revisiting a classic as Wuthering Heights embarks on its tour.“If you love the book, hopefully you will enjoy it and if you’ve never read the book, hopefully it will make you want to read it.” (Karen Price)

 EDIT: More information on the blog of the production here.

Categories: Theatre, Wuthering Heights