A story better than they can ever be played

A list of things to not to be missed in Yorkshire for next week, according to Wakefield Express:

5 Wuthering Heights
Oakwell Hall Country Park, Birstall, July 31
Chapterhouse Theatre Company presents the wild and tempestuous love story of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, set on the beautiful and mysterious Yorkshire Moors. This tale of passion and revenge has thrilled readers and audiences alike for generations. Now, in an adaptation by award-winning writer Laura Turner, is set to entrance Chapterhouse audiences for an evening of theatre beneath the stars. Can Catherine and Heathcliff’s love endure, or will the forces of nature tear them apart? (Jane Chippindale)

The production is also recommended, for the performances at Lewes Castle, in Sussex Express.

Fringe Review posts about another adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the Brighton performances of the Identity Theatre production:

This production never feels too long and on its opening night barely drops in pace throughout. Wuthering Heights is one of those gothic stories that are better than they can ever be played, whoever adapts: such transcendent emotions in the key characters defy nearly all attempts and it’s a huge credit that you don’t cease to believe these actors. Vocally too it’s extremely taxing. De Angelis has chosen fluid storytelling, social and feminist point, and some humour. It’s more vividly mobile than any TV version.
There’s not a weak link though and this production sails effortlessly into a top recommendation for this version. There mightn’t be a finer adaptation at BOAT this year. See it if you can. (Simon Jenner)

London News Online reviews the London production of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4:

The story follows Adrian Mole, a self-professed intellectual, who is desperate to gain the affection of his first love, Pandora, who is always just a little bit beyond his reach.
Adrian’s attempts to get Pandora’s attention by writing her poetry and reading Wuthering Heights brought out a few giggles from the audience. (Nicola Graham-Simms)

Lyndsay Faye, the author of Jane Steele, reviews The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal for The New York Times:

People who scoff at “Pride and Prejudice” and “Jane Eyre” may belittle “The Doll Factory,” with its strong whiff of fairy-tale romanticism. Ignore them. Iris is a dreamer, and dreamers are inherently romantic.

BookRiot highlights some books which experiment with text and genre. For instance, Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Peissl

Each chapter of Special Topics is linked to a source material, like Othello and Wuthering Heights. Throughout, the text is filled with references in footnotes, many of which lead to fictional sources. Reading this novel is an exercise in shifting your expectations. (D.R. Baker)

Women and literature discussed in Il Libraio (Italy):

Quando si parla di grandi scrittrici, è infatti d’uopo mettere l’accento sull’ostinata zitellaggine (un esempio luminoso sono le sorelle Brontë, che beffarono ogni convenzione prendendosi tutta la gloria negata al loro fratello Branwell, rovesciando le previsioni che vedevano lui, unico maschio, affermarsi come artista; scrittrici geniali, furono anche molto scapole, con la parziale eccezione della più longeva, Charlotte, la quale fu la sola a sposarsi ma morì poco dopo le nozze), o comunque su un’infelicità domestica talvolta considerata letale, come nei molti casi di autrici suicide, da Sylvia Plath a Virginia Woolf alla povera Ingeborg Bachmann che trovò la morte in un atto mancato. (Ilaria Gaspari) (Translation

A recent crossword in the Los Angeles Times included the question:

Youngest Brontë sibling (Bruce Haight)

Ultima Voce (Italy) praises Jane Campion's The Piano:

Questa frizione diventa attrazione assai velocemente ed è uno dei tanti esempi dell’ironia campioniana che è erede di quella di Buñuel e ben si accosta a quelle sensazioni letterarie che portano critici e amatori a ricordare nel film Emily Brontë, D.H. Lawrence e Hawthorne.
Si ricordi però, che l’ironia bronteana è sadica quanto tragica: la Campion, pur amando destabilizzare i propri personaggi, sa di star filmando una fiaba adulta, dove la violenza non è espressione di principi cosmici, ma di istinti. (Antonio Canzoniere) (Translation)

Nick Reynolds at work posts about Wuthering Heights. Gil T's Pleasures does the same with Jane Eyre. Finally, an alert for US viewers. Tonight on TCM:

Wuthering Heights (1939)
Friday July, 26 2019 at 10:30 PM