'So many wet socks on so many moors'

Londonist gives 4 stars out of 5 to Wise Children's Wuthering Heights.

The bones of original plot are all here with music, circus and welcome dollops of humour thrown in to spice up the darkness of the original text. The characters are slightly different too: out go Nelly and Joseph and in comes a spry Nandi Bhebhe as an evocative personification of the Moor. Rice gives fans and critics the full Brontë, addressing the story’s complexity but also giving us the complete plot (and not the occasionally abbreviated version).

The music is probably the finest addition here. Backed by a live band, cast-sung numbers in a variety style of genres including hard rock and indie-pop are scattered across the near-three hour run time and energise some of the slower scenes, especially in the first half.

A close second is the humour which ranges from slapstick absurdities to quick fire so-wrong-yet-so-right verbal wit. Katy Owen in the minor roles of Isabella and Little Linton is sheer comic brilliance, unleashing one-liners like “Sometimes I like to slide down the banister because it tickles my tuppence".

With all the extras thrown in by Rice, something has to give. The characterisations here are shallower than in the book, lessening the dramatic weight of the romance between Heathcliff and Catherine (played solidly by Ash Hunter and Lucy McCormick) as well as the many, many deaths.

All in all, Rice’s interpretation is theatrical magic and a highly memorable live experience. Moreover, it pulls off the seemingly-impossible: outshining Kate Bush’s 1970s earworm as the best thing inspired by this novel. (Franco Milazzo)

Gay Times gives it 3 stars out of 5:

Attempting to stage Wuthering Heights is a bold idea – it’s a novel which has little room for trimming. Unsurprisingly, this sprawling stage adaptation weighs in at a hefty three hours, with a first act that feels like it overstays its welcome a tad. To be honest the fact they’ve managed to stage the story at all is impressive, and given its complexity – a plot full of twists, a convoluted family tree and a narrative spanning many years – it’s surprisingly easy to follow. [...]

There is plenty to enjoy – not least, it’s actually pretty funny, if on occasion quite ridiculous. There’s some wonderful physical humour, with Sam Archer and Katy Owen as insufferable siblings Edgar and Isabella Linton playing outlandish caricatures; it’s high camp and silly, and all the better for it. After a while it risks becoming a bit one-note but there are some laugh-out-loud funny moments.

We weren’t sold on the central love affair between Cathy and Heathcliff, however. The beating heart of the novel, it doesn’t quite feel believable in this staging – Lucy McCormick is delightfully wild as Cathy and Ash Hunter is strong as brooding anti-hero Heathcliff, but when they’re together it never feels as exciting or dangerous as it should. It feels less passionate and more theatrical, which is a bit of a shame given how integral this element is to the story.

We enjoyed this rather epic and ambitious staging but we didn’t fall in love with Wuthering Heights. It has many strong elements – it’s humorous, creative, the songs are a welcome addition, the puppetry works effectively – and it has plenty of the warmth, charm and originality that we’ve come to expect from Emma Rice’s shows. Yet it didn’t quite give us what we wanted from our central couple, and – while it would be difficult to cut significantly – it still felt a little too long. Enjoyable viewing, but not essential. (Chris Selman)

3 stars from Broadway Baby too:

Energy abounds in all corners of this production. The 12 actors play over 20 roles, switching confidently and naturally from storytellers to the story’s players. They move time and change sets in front of us, without awkwardness.

It may seem that Designer Vicki “the Lyttleton Whisperer” Mortimer has provided little more than a revolving front door and two high-backed chairs. But these have been made intrinsic to the flow of the action, so we never question a change of location or disbelieve a passage of time created with the subtlest of alterations. [...]

Musicians sit upstage and underscore the action throughout. A number of times the music swells, and we get a proper, full-on, original (often rock) song. Some are delivered as script, following a “sing me that song you used to sing when…” type prompt. Others look in from the outside.

In a highlight McCormick goes full rock-chick, showing off the power of her voice, with a performance that is as beautiful as it is guttural. It ends with a mic drop and blackout. Cute.

It's less than a full-blown musical. It’s more than some songs added to a play. It’s a construct that shouldn’t work.

And I can’t tell you why, but it does. It really really does. [...]

That said, there’s a lot of fun in this tragedy. Yes, the second act loses some of the polished energy of the first. But it is much shorter. Plus it nicely ties up the loose ends so worth coming back from the interval.

It may not be Rice at her A-game, but it’s far from boring. Is it quite as unique as it may think? Does it strike the right balance between faithful retelling and accessible fun? I’m not sure on either point.

See it without expectations.

See it without questions.

See it without comparisons.

And no harm done. (Simon Ximenez)

BBC reports that on their new Radio 4 podcast, Now You're Asking, Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn take on the role of agony aunts.

Both Tara and Marian are reformed bad boy devotees, in love with the idea of falling in love and the accompanying pheromone boost that comes with it. But as Marian tells us: "The perfect man does not exist." Marian blames Wuthering Heights, partly, for the problem. "That wretched book has destroyed sensible women's expectations of men." "So many wet socks on so many moors," Tara sympathises. 

The Times says of Beatrix Potter handwriting:

Strain your eyes to read Beatrix's early journals, written in such a minute, neat hand I'd back her against Charlotte Brontë in a tiny handwriting standoff. (Alex O’Connell)

Literary Hub has an article on Jean Rhys.

For Rhys’ women on the margins, the acquisition of money is random and unpredictable, not based on talent or moral worth (as it is, for example, in so many Victorian novels, such as Jane Eyre). (Imogen Crimp)

Literary wind is discussed on Electric Lit.

The gloomy moors of Wuthering Heights are famously vulnerable to the wind—so, too, are the unfortunate families who call them “home.” It’s basically Emily Brontë’s whole deal, right? From the first pages of her only novel, we’re introduced to a home beleaguered by “pure, bracing ventilation … at all times.” And it shows! Trees slant against the titular homestead, contributing to a super moody landscape. Characters get sick—and sometimes die—after bouts of bad weather. All the while, they mirror the violent weather in impulsive, lashing actions against each other.

Naturally, this kind of gusty, Gothic setup is good terrain for dramatic angst. So it’s no wonder that shades of Wuthering Heights can be seen in contemporary media, from music (“There were nights when the wind was so cold,” croons Celine Dion) to film (hi, Crimson Peak). Though the creators of both works have acknowledged a direct Wuthering influence, one of the novel’s more surprising scions is a little less direct (and, OK, maybe completely accidental): Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Specifically, Season 2, Episode 11—“Josh is the Man of My Dreams, Right?” [...]

In Wuthering Heights, bad, blustery weather manifests its own brand of misfortune. The night that Heathcliff runs away after overhearing Nelly and Catherine talk about him, “there was a violent wind … a huge bough fell across the roof, and knocked down a portion of the east chimney-stack.” To further complicate things, Catherine gets sick from spending all that time outside looking for Heathcliff—so sick that she’s sent to recuperate at Thrushcross Grange, and infects the Lintons with her fever, killing both of her future in-laws. She marries Edgar three years later, permanently ruling out any future with Heathcliff.

Sure, the wind here is not a gleeful, anthropomorphic trickster. But all the same, the people in its path are powerless—victims of forces they can’t control. Or at least, maybe it’s easier to see things that way.In addition to using wind as a physical plot device—the way it damages people and things—the women behind Wuthering Heights and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend both play it as a sort of stand-in for emotions too thorny to own up to. Those stormy winds from the night Heathcliff leaves? They happen at the height of Catherine’s heartbreak. Her love for Heathcliff is so complicated that she can’t extricate him from her own identity—so the wind has to take on some of the work of expressing that pent-up passion. (Grace Wehniainen) (Read more)

MovieWeb ranks the 'Best British Movies of the 2010s' and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights makes it onto the list.

8 Wuthering Heights

Based on the classic novel of the same name by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights follows the story of poor Heathcliff who gets taken in by the wealthy Earnshaw family where he meets Catherine. The two form an intense relationship which follows them everywhere they go. This gothic retelling of the classic story is the first of its kind to show Heathcliff as a Black man, taking Brontë’s original description of Heathcliff seriously. This adds another layer to the story, bringing race into the equation and why Heathcliff is treated differently by most of the Earnshaw family, except for Cathy. Wuthering Heights won a number of awards, including the Osella Award for Best Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Black Reel Awards. (Jessica Brajer)

Parade shares adds a quote from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to a list of '75 of the Best Quotes About Sons That Will Warm Your Heart and Make You Smile'.