If ever a tale needed a crazy woman...

The Independent quotes a speech by Colombian novelist Evelio Rosero:

Colombian novelist Evelio Rosero couldn't make it to the packed and Champagne Taittinger-fuelled party at Tate Britain that saw his terrific novel The Armies, in Anne McLean's radiant translation, win the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Yet he did write a speech for the occasion. Charmingly, he returned our compliment by running through the British books that helped make him a writer. Rosero saluted Defoe's Robinson Crusoe – although, as an adolescent reader, he did ask why the stranded loner never masturbated - and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. (Boyd Tonkin)

The Pittsburgh Observer-Reader reviews Joan Ackerman's Ice Glen performances at the Little Lake Theatre:

Despite the sincerity in [Sunny Disney] Fitchett's direction, along with performances given by actors who could transfix an audience by reading the instructions from a model airplane kit, this homage to Victorian novels (similar themes transferred to Massachusetts) gives you an idea of what "Jane Eyre" might have been like if Charlotte Bronte had omitted the big heartbreaking secret at Thornfield Hall and made Edward Rochester an unmarried man.
Too bad. If ever a tale needed a crazy woman throwing fits in the attic, this is it. (Doug Shanaberger)

Tamasha Theatre's Wuthering Heights UK tour continues after its London performances. The Leicester Mercury talks about the upcoming Coventry ones (Tue 9 – Sat 13 Jun 2009 Belgrade Theatre):

Emily Bronte’s passionate novel set in the wild and rugged Yorkshire terrain is not something you’d instantly consider a contender for the Bollywood treatment.
But this intense tale of love, revenge and avarice spanning two generations could be straight out of a Hindi film.
At least, so thinks Asian theatre company Tamasha.
And now Bronte meets Bollywood in a new touring theatre piece, heading for its only Midlands date at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre.
Former Leicester Haymarket regular Gary Pillai plays Vijay Singh in the show.
His previous Leicester appearances include Krishna in Mahabarata, Unsuitable Girls, Bollywood Jane, Macbeth, The White Devil, An Ideal Husband and Richard III.
He’s also been seen recently in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre and in Far North, opposite Michelle Yeoh, and can be seen in Franklyn alongside Eva Green.
“I have been busy”, he laughs, “but this is a great piece to work on. We’ve transported the story from the moors of Yorkshire to the deserts of Rajasthan, and it works well with a desert landscape.”
So Cathy and Heathcliff become Shakuntala and Krishan. She’s the fiery and headstrong daughter of spice merchant Singh.
He’s the wily street urchin from Bombay that Singh brings home after a trip to market.
The rigid social hierarchy of 1770s Rajasthan, with its inequality of wealth and Empire influences, provides the ideal backdrop.
And in true Bollywood style – there’s lots of music and dancing.
“Fundamentally it’s a play with music and dancing, but in Bollywood tradition it’s all lip-synced”, says Gary.
“Anything can happen in Bollywood, characters can sing underwater, it all seems like a dream sequence.
“But the play is so dark and passionate and romanticised that it works.
“Audiences sometimes think the lip-syncing is a bit odd to start with but they soon get used to it, and Indian audiences who are more familiar with Bollywood are used to the style anyway. It’s just a heightened reality, really.”
The show certainly has a great pedigree – director Kristine Landon Smith, co-founder and artistic director of Tamasha, directed Bollywood musical Fourteen Songs Two Weddings and A Funeral for the company.
Writer Deepak Verma has previously worked with Tamasha on his play Ghostdancing, (Lyric Hammersmith, also directed by Kristine Landon-Smith) which was based on Zola’s Thérèse Raquin and transposed to India.
He is additionally known for his long-running role as Sanjay in EastEnders.
And the music comes via the eleven actors who sing in lip-synch to a pre-recorded score, which has been performed and recorded by a team of classically-trained musicians in Bangalore and vocalists in London.
Musical supervisor John Rigby has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and on some of the West End’s biggest musicals, while co-arranger Chandru is a renowned violinist and arranger who has previously worked with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Bjork, Nitin Sawhney and The Cure. (Lizz Brain)

As we said yesterday Wuthering Heights 2009 will be broadcast this weekend and the next one in Belgium (on ééé TV), Broadcast now adds that in the UK

Mammoth's adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic Wuthering Heights is due to air on ITV1 later this year. (Jon Rogers)

EDIT: The trailer of the Belgium broadcast can be seen here.

Ananova republishes the Twitter summaries of great books with a few "variations". Quoting verbatim:

Wuthering Heights by Jane Austin becomes the pithy: 'Catherine Earnshaw marries Edgar Linton but really loves Heathcliff *sigh*.'

We don't know how many (sic)'s to add.

The Wuthering Expectations blog is devoting an interesting series of posts to Emily Brontë's poems: I'm happiest when most away, Shall earth no more inspire thee, The Prisoner. A Fragment and Matthew Arnold's poem Haworth Churchyward. The latest post talks about Charlotte Brontë's editing of some of the poems of her sister. The Joy of Reading reviews Emily's novel, Wuthering Heights. Jenny's Books chooses Jane Eyre as the book that she would like to be able to read again for the first time?

Categories: Brontëites, Emily Brontë, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Poetry, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights