'An invitation to let our imagination roam free'

More reviews of Wise Children's Wuthering Heights in London today. The Telegraph gives it 3 out of 5 stars.

I can’t say that either Lucy McCormick as the tormented woman of the Yorkshire moors or Ash Hunter as Cathy’s brutalised kindred spirit leave a lasting impression, albeit the former makes a magnificently arresting entrance, cracking a whip and screaming.

McCormick enacts the famous early vignette of ghostly gothic fright, knocking at a window and pleading to be let in, with due mad-eyed excess. The only issue is that an unsympathetic spirit of bedlam then haunts her every look. Our heroine’s turbulence is further embellished with a shouty, sweary rock number. Eat your heart out Kate Bush.

For his part, Hunter offers us a Heathcliff solid and scowling, but mainly impassive; the fact that the actor is mixed-race allows an interpretation, lurking in the book, of racial alienation. I wanted less Darcy-like restraint and more Oli Reed darkness. Rice implies rather than shows his sexual nastiness through a jittery soliloquy by his wretched wife Isabella – played by Rice regular and panache-loaded Katy Owen.

Elsewhere, is she honouring or travestying the work she says she loves to the hilt? The atmosphere is more gooey than gritty, more com than rom. Folksy strumming banishes aching silence and moaning winds, while a larky, spoofy attitude prevails; the narratorial voice is handed over to a hoofing, ensemble personification of the moorland, headed by Nandi Bhebhe. I was, by turns valuably and frustratingly, in two minds for much of the show. But in its favour and arguably victorious defence, the production’s confidence and page-turning zest has its own persuasive force.

The frolicsome aspect answers Cathy and Heathcliff’s carefree juvenile phase and, overall, the heady, risk-taking theatricality resembles a surrogate mad passion. As satisfying as the book? No. The best staging ever? Surely not. Yet it’s an invitation to let our imagination roam free together: that feels invaluable right now. (Dominic Cavendish)

The Times gives 4 out of 5 stars: 

Few directors depict tangled passion with quite the evocative wallop of Emma Rice. And few directors are as handy at coming to the audience’s aid when all those tangles get hard to negotiate. So you may well, as I was, be swept away by all the romance, harshness and laughter in Rice’s Emily Brontë adaptation for her company Wild Children and co-producers the National, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal. You may find the way that characters dance, somersault or often burst into song, to the strains of a fabulous folky soundtrack by Ian Ross, heightens its emotions in a way that helps turn a literary source into something utterly theatrical. (...)

Etta Murfitt’s choreography, Vicki Mortimer’s bare set with its moveable doors and ladders and Simon Baker’s video backdrop of moving clouds all help to keep this deft yet spectacular. The sensibility is Rice’s, but the entire excellent ensemble own it. “What is this gentle magic?” the ever-confused Lockwood asks at the end as finally, some happiness arrives. Whatever it is, this Wuthering Heights casts its spell. (Dominic Maxwell

London Unattached enjoyed it:

It’s a long time since I’ve read Wuthering Heights and I have to admit my memory of the narrative is pretty scratchy, but I needn’t have worried as Emma Rice’s anarchic production retells this turbulent and passionate story in clear, highly theatrical steps, which includes blackboards for names, births and deaths and a reminder of the year, 1847.

Heathcliff (Ash Hunter) is rescued from the docks by a kindly Mr Earnshaw (Craig Johnson) who brings him home to his two children Catherine (Lucy McCormick) and Hindley (Tama Phethean). Young Cathy and Heathcliff form a kindred bond, whereas Hindley is consumed with jealousy and sets out to destroy him. Heathcliff leaves the moors for several years returning as a gentleman, only to find Cathy married to the gentle and well-mannered Edgar Linton. Passions run high as Heathcliff sets to wreak his revenge.

The first half grabbed my attention with its rambunctious energy and visceral atmosphere. The Moor itself is imaginatively depicted as a character taking over the role of narrator and led by the marvellous Nandhi Bhebe with shapeshifting members of the cast who dip in and out of the chorus into other roles. Uplifting music and evocative folk songs, with an especially good opening number about Moors, vividly set the pace.

McCormick’s wide-eyed Cathy is wild, rebellious and unkempt, and although she gives a very powerful performance, grabbing a microphone at one point and singing like a banshee rock star she never appears to soften. Cathy says “Heathcliff is more myself than I am”, but I struggled to find the beating heart; where was the impassioned love affair between her and Heathcliff?

Hunter was believable as the spurned orphan, he has a strong and stirring voice, but as the older Heathcliff, who returns in the second half, there appeared to be no vulnerability beneath his cold and impenetrable exterior.

Emma Rice’s script covers considerable ground, finding ways to weave in humour and grit, it is definitely not just a Gothic tragedy, it’s very funny and camp with a touch of pantomime. Katy Owen as Isabella Linton and Little Linton gives a wonderfully comedic performance along with other amusing caricatures from Witney White as Frances Earnshaw (also Catherine Linton) and Sam Archer as Lockwood (also Edgar Linton), all of who provide some laugh out loud moments.

The second half loses its way a little… doomed affairs of the heart, Cathy’s hauntings and a new generation of children discovering their roots whilst Heathcliff’s bitter rage unfolds before the ends are all tied up.

A big, bold and physically expressive production. (Lucy Foxell)

3 stars out of 5 on The Reviews Hub.

You don’t have to read the programme notes of Wise Children’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s only novel Wuthering Heights to realise that writer/director Emma Rice loves the book. Her affection and devotion for the piece shines from every moment on stage. Whether it works as well for those who have not yet fallen for Brontë’s work as she has is another matter entirely. [...]

Brontë’s novel survives, nay thrives, on such changes of pace and structure. The stage production, alas, does not. That is a shame, for there are some moments (especially a thrilling, punk-like solo number from McCormick, delivered with full backing dancers, wind machine, the works) which are up there with Rice’s best theatrical extravagances.

But because such moments are not applied equally throughout the work, and because the novel’s chronology is adhered to so strongly, one leaves the Lyttelton theatre nearly three hours later feeling like one has watched a double feature, with one very good full-length play followed by another, lesser production.

Rice clearly loves Wuthering Heights. But it will take a reading of the novel, and not a watching of the play, to work out why. (Scott Matthewman)

From Live Theatre UK:

The production is filled with Rice’s distinctive playfulness and OTT spectacle: the ensemble screech when a door is unlocked to the windy moors, and the Linton siblings (as the fussy Edgar Linton, Sam Archer nearly matches Owens’ comic gift), with their powder-puff pink costumes and ostentatious balletic movement, set against the stomping, feral Cathy.

Similarly, the film’s eventual happy ending is tonally abrupt (if self-consciously so), with Simon Baker’s grey projections giving way to a heavenly blue. No doubt, Wuthering Heights is a cumbersome, often explosive theatre piece, but there is something oddly fitting about it.

From Southwark News:

The combination of brilliant casting, production design, and choreography create something that functions as a whole. It is almost impossible to find a weak link.

Where one could despair entirely of the selfish Cathy and Heathcliff, it is the victims of their dysfunctional romance that shine as the real stars. The sometimes superfluous Lintons become main characters on their own merit and young Cathy and Hareton provide a genuine ray of reasonable hope. In the end, true love wins, not in ravished passion, but through hard-won forgiveness.

Yorkshire Live recommends a local walk.

What inspires a good walk in the Yorkshire countryside? Death.

A ramble up Ilkley Moor? Inspired by the tale of a hat-less guy freezing to death.

The Brontë walk from Haworth to Top Withens? Inspired by a novel about a ghost banging on her cruel ex-lover's window. (Dave Himelfield)

The Guardian features rock climber Anna Fleming.

My climbing apprenticeship was shaped by the many home and job moves of my itinerant 20s. From Liverpool, I moved to Yorkshire, where I became better acquainted with the rock of Brontë country – gritstone. This sedimentary stone is made up of sands and pebbles that once poured off mountains into the Pennine basin. Now, some 320m years later, it is the foundation rock for many British climbers.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reviews Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz.

Yes, “Anatomy” is many things: A gothic romance set in 19th century Edinburgh, Scotland complete with understated feminist themes in the vein of Brontë and Shelley. It’s also a young adult (YA) mystery novel that sparked a bidding war among publishers and was picked for Reese Witherspoon’s book club. And it’s also a deep dive into classism and wealth gaps in the early 1800s. (Seth Combs)

Deia (Spain) on how books seem to change when read at different points of our lives.

Lo corrobora Aixa de la Cruz, a quien participar en el grupo le ha obligado a acudir a lecturas antiguas y no tan antiguas. "Aunque sean libros que he leído hace cinco o seis años se pueden resignificar por completo", expone. El mejor ejemplo de ello es su clásico favorito, que ha leído en diferentes momentos de su vida: Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë. "Lo leímos en 2018, después de que todas nos volviéramos feministas. Me ha obsesionado esta idea de cómo los libros dicen mucho de ti como lectora. De cómo podrías incluso trazar tu biografía como persona releyendo un mismo texto en momentos cruciales", reconoce la escritora bilbaina. (Ane Araluzea) (Translation)

TV Overmind lists all the books referenced in Friends.

5. The Time Phoebe And Rachel Attended A Literature Class

Phoebe was never one to be messed with, and Rachel learned this the hard way when she attended a literature class with Phoebe. Rachel walked into class late without having read any of the books. Right before class started, she had Phoebe explain what the book was about in detail. Phoebe gave her a well-thought explanation about Wuthering Heights, which Rachel simply reiterated when the tutor asked what she thought of the theme. Phoebe was upset that Rachel used her exact words. When it was her turn to give an answer, she was completely blank. The next time Rachel and Phoebe ( Lisa Kudrow) attended class, Rachel did not read Jane Eyre. Instead, she browsed through Vogue. Rachel asked about the book. “ Don’t be such a goodie goodie,” she told Phoebe. Phoebe explained Jane Eyre, but instead of giving her a good answer like the first time, she gave Rachel a wrong explanation. Needless to say, Rachel did not get to shine in class when she gave her thoughts on the character. (Nataly Owala)

RaiNews (Italy) features the exhibition Defying Expectations at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Howorth (sic). 'When Currer Bell Became Charlotte Brontë' on AnneBrontë.org.