Sacrifice and Hard Work

So Sumi reviews the performances of Brontë. The World Without at the Guild Festival Theatre:

I was worried that Jordi Mand’s Brontë: The World Without (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) might not suit an al fresco production at Scarborough’s Guild Festival Theatre. After all, it’s pretty much entirely set in the West Yorkshire house that the literary sisters Brontë — Charlotte (Laura Del Papa), Emily (Hilary Scott) and Anne (Lara Lucia) — shared in the 1800s.

But director Helen Juvonen’s sensitive staging, a trio of passionate performances and the solid classical columns of the GFT stage give the production a grandeur and airiness it lacked in its rather cramped premiere eight years ago at Stratford’s Studio Theatre. (...)

I think I was a little harsh on Mand’s play when it premiered in 2018. It doesn’t want to show where the Brontë’s works came from — how could you begin to depict the genesis of Emily’s impassioned, unusual Wuthering Heights? But it does capture the sacrifice and hard work that goes into artistic creation, especially when, as a woman, you’re expected to do so much else. It also nicely illustrates the bond that connects the three sisters, who are each so different and intimately know each other’s insecurities. (Glenn Sumi)

Broadway World announces a new production of Bronté Sistr House Party in Washington D.C.: 

Nu Sass Productions cordially invites you to the house party of the season, hosted by none other than the Brontë Sisters—Emily, Charlotte, and Anne, the famous writers of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall respectively. The Brontë Sisters are stuck in purgatory, suffering through party after party in an endless time loop, until they throw the best house party and reach The Point of Celebratory Reverence. For them, hosting is truly hell.

Nu Sass presents Brontë Sister House Party, written by Courtney Bailey, which premiered at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival in 2021 for the Confluence Regional Writers' Project, and was awarded the 2022 St. Louis Theatre Circle Award.

The Telegraph on fiction's obsession with dead women:

Elsewhere, death serves as an explicit expression of moral or religious purity. Think Helen Burns in Jane Eyre. (Claire Allfree)

The poet Ali Trotta presents her new book, Offerings for Ordinary Gods, on Whatever:

I’ll never forget when, after reading and loving Jane Eyre, I read Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. If you’ve never read it, it focuses on Bertha Rochester before becoming Bertha Rochester. Rhys’ book not only gives her a different name, but an entirely full and rich history. In fact, Rhys was so furious about Bertha simply being the madwoman in the attic, she set out to write her a life. And I loved Wide Sargasso Sea for itself and for its intertextuality—how it existed on its own and in conversation with Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. 

Another author, Amy Chozick, also chooses Wide Sargasso Sea as one of her favourite novels on Debutiful. 

Marie Claire lists the best romantic films of 2026, so far. And Wuthering Heights 2026 had to be on it, of course:

Between Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Emerald Fennell has proven that her films are water-cooler conversation starters. This year, she took on Emily Brontë’s iconic gothic novel Wuthering Heights, with Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Fennell faced controversy, with some fans accusing the director of whitewashing Heathcliff and oversexualizing the source material. Still, it's a feast for the eyes—and who can resist a score by Charli xcx? (Abby Monteil  Contributions by Sadie Bell)

Coveteur asks some "fashion girls" what their reading list is for the summer.  

The Book: "I finished Eve Babitz's Sex and Rage while in LA and am about halfway through Wuthering Heights, so that will be coming with me to the UK and France."

The Reasoning: "I’ve been really into pre-gaming my vacations by reading novels based on my next destination. I started it last year when I happened to read Patti Smith’s Devotion before going to Paris, and it made the anticipation of sitting at a Parisian cafe so much sweeter. A few months ago I picked up Deborah Levy’s The Cost of Living during a trip to London, and will be returning to the city with Wuthering Heights. I can’t say it’s a particularly relaxing read, but I am looking forward to being haunted by gothic literature while in London." (Tina Zhang) 

Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty is the subject of this article on The Sydney Morning Herald:

Set in Sydney, Time Travel For Beginners centres on characters Anna, Jade and Teddy, each searching for answers in complicated lives, a quest that brings them to a nondescript shop called the Time Travel Agency. Here, customers are offered travel to wherever they wish in the past without altering the future in any way.

Does meeting Charlotte Brontë walking on the moors sound interesting? Or seeing the construction of Stonehenge? Would revisiting their teenage self be intriguing? What moment in people’s lives would they travel to? And, how would it help them understand the present? (Lenny Ann Low)

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever in Newcastle Live.