The Moors reviewed

Chicago Sun-Times gives 3 1/2 stars to Red Orchid Theatre’s take on The Moors.

The inter-species romance playing out on the desolate, ruthless titular moors runs parallel to the human drama in Silverman’s twisted gothic tale. As in the prototypical gothic novel “Jane Eyre,” “The Moors” centers on a governess lured to an isolated English manse surrounded here by marsh and quicksand.

But after the sweet-seeming Emilie (Audrey Billings) arrives from London, Silverman stands the tropes of the genre on their head. There’s someone walled up in the attic, but unlike in “Jane Eyre,” it’s not a mad woman. There is sexual tension abounding, but it’s not between the governess and some craggy-handsome, emotionally absent master. There are no children. There are two murders. (Catey Sullivan)

New City Stage reviews it too.

Should plays that pay tribute and also parody other works be obliged to click with audiences that are unschooled in the works’ source material? Or is a giant inside joke just as worthy as something more universally connecting? Should reviews of plays begin with questions?

If one were largely ignorant of the novels of the Brontë sisters, as I am, one might find these issues weighing heavily while taking in “The Moors,” which plays off the mental and physical landscapes of the work of Charlotte and Emily (perhaps not Anne). The play, by Jen Silverman, is a dizzying patchwork of farce, “Young Frankenstein”-like clownishness, mental illness and exalted poetry. I jotted down several brooding lines to see if they were lifted from the Brontës themselves, but could not match them. [...]

Even in their pop-culture outings in film, the Brontës make much of sexual perversions. “The Moors” twists that and makes what would have been regarded as perverse in the sister’s day, at least, less, um, unmoored. There’s some interspecies romance, too, though the relationship between the flighty, feathery female moorhen and the big dog turns out the way one might expect in a work in which males, though barely present, are as grim and cold as the landscape. (Ted C. Fishman)

Broadway World is looking forward to Wise Children's Wuthering Heights at the National Theatre in London.

Emma Rice's new version of Wuthering Heights plays in the Lyttelton theatre with performances from Thursday 3 February until Saturday 19 March. A co-production with Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal, this adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic opened at Bristol Old Vic in October 2021 and will embark on a UK wide tour through 2022.

The epic story of love, revenge and redemption.

Rescued from the Liverpool docks as a child, Heathcliff (Ash Hunter) is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights.

In their daughter Catherine (Lucy McCormick), Heathcliff finds a kindred spirit and a fierce love ignites. But, when forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed.

Shot through with music and dance, Emma Rice (Bagdad Cafe, Wise Children, Brief Encounter) transforms Emily Brontë's masterpiece into a passionate, powerful and uniquely theatrical experience.

Lucy McCormick is cast as Cathy, Ash Hunter as Heathcliff and Sam Archer, Nandi Bhebhe, Mirabelle Gremaud, Stephanie Hockley, TJ Holmes, Craig Johnson, Jordan Laviniere, Katy Owen, Tama Phethean and Witney White complete the company.

Set and costume design by Vicki Mortimer, compositions by Ian Ross, sound and video by Simon Baker, lighting design by Jai Morjaria, movement and choreography by Etta Murfitt and music performed by Sid Goldsmith, Nadine Lee and Renell Shaw. (Stephi Wild)

The Times talks about the culture wars in the US classrooms (you know that cancel culture extends the whole political spectrum):

The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the books that is most frequently challenged on account of its often violent and sexual content. “If you’re a writer and everybody likes you, a) you’re doing something wrong, or b) you don’t exist,” Atwood, 82, told the Associated Press.
“I am happy to be in the company of the Bible, Shakespeare, John Bunyan, Lord Byron, Emily Brontë, Flaubert, James Joyce, Nawal el Saadawi, Angela Carter, Anonymous of A Woman in Berlin and so many others. Lucky me, I live in a democracy, so at least I’m not in jail or being tossed out of a plane.” (Alistair Dawber)

A columnist from dBalears (in Catalan) considers reading the classics an important source of happiness.

Cal llegir. Ens cal llegir. No és broma. La lectura és, en el fons, teòrica, i sàvia en la forma. Fem-la pràctica. En això consisteix el seu veritable sentit. La lectura, com la vida, té sentit: ens porta la felicitat. Dins tots els llibres s’hi amaga sempre un món feliç si els sabem llegir. Pensem en els clàssics. Tots són afluents de la felicitat. Pensem en Homer i Ciceró, en els russos Màxim Gorki i Nicolai Gogol, en els alemanys Goethe i Schiller, en els francesos Victor Hugo i Chateaubriand, en les germanes Brontë, Charlotte, Anne i Emily, en els anglosaxons Charles Dickens i Oscar Wilde. Tots aquests autors i centenars més com ells aporten i han aportat felicitat al món. (Joan Guasp) (Translation)

News Nation USA looks into the key moments of Walking Dead ahead of the final season.

Season 3: The prison & the governor

[...] Andrea befriends a woman named Michonne and the two of them discover a settlement called Woodbury led by a Governor with a tyrannical leadership style and a dark secret. He’s keeping his zombified daughter locked up like something out of Jane Eyre.