What was initially 'deliciously dark' is now 'chaotic'

After an initial glowing five-star review of the production, The Ogserver now deems Inspector Sands' Wuthering Heights 'chaotic' and only worthy of 2 stars out of 5.

A barrage of sound mixes rain, distant voices and a heavenly choir. Light flashes, an electric lamp swings wildly above a woman dressed in black, wearing a white apron, who is sitting behind a table. Around her rise three gloomy, dark walls, punctuated by elongated openings; above her, a shadowed balcony runs the length of the back wall. This is the world of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel as conceived by director Lucinka Eisler and writer Ben Lewis (both founding members of theatre company Inspector Sands, co-producer, here, with Royal & Derngate, China Plate and Oxford Playhouse).

The woman at the table scrapes a carrot with a large knife: Nelly the housekeeper (Giulia Innocenti, also a founder member of Inspector Sands) is at the centre of what seems to be a sort of police procedural. When characters appear, their photographs are pinned to the back wall, as if to a suspects board; when they die, they remove their photos as they exit (six actors play 11 roles). A disembodied voice interrogates Nelly: “Who is the monster?” When she replies, “Heathcliff”, it challenges her. Why is she taking his wages instead of leaving for another job? She must, the voice commands, “Tell the story!”

Heathcliff (Ike Bennett) is introduced as a “rescued slave” and treated brutally. The story progresses chaotically; characters and relationships are two-dimensional; class distinctions are comic-book crass. “Interrogator” figures identify Nelly as a spinster, as childless; they accuse her of trying to take the children in the story for her own, of ruining their lives. Is she, they say, the real monster?

The overall impression is of a storm of ideas struggling to find dramatic definition. This is a shame. Simple moments, where the action connects with the novel, work well: Lua Bairstow as Catherine, describing her love for Heathcliff; the growing rapport between John Askew’s Hareton and Nicole Sawyerr’s Young Cathy. They are too few. (Clare Brennan)

Financial Times highlights the best new crime books and one of them is:

Kate Griffin’s exuberant debut novel, Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders, was a glorious romp through the seedy yet irresistible world of the East End music halls of 1880s London. And subsequent historical crime novels have maintained the promise of that book. More Victorian menace is on offer in Griffin’s latest novel, Fyneshade (Viper, £16.99), with echoes of both Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden as beleaguered (but far from innocent) heroine Marta takes up a post at Fyneshade Hall as governess to the owner’s daughter — and encounters murderous family machinations. (Barry Forshaw)

Redacon (Italy) features Emily Brontë and some of her poems. 'The Brontës And The Royal Coronation' on AnneBrontë.org.