Love, death, generational trauma and ghosts… what’s not to like?

The Mancunion reviews Wise Children's Wuthering Heights at The Lowry.

For Wuthering Heights to work, you have to believe in the conflict within Catherine to understand the pain that Heathcliff feels, and it worked so well in this adaptation. You have to understand why Heathcliff is infatuated with her and why Catherine becomes deranged by the life she has been driven to, at the expense of her true integrity and feelings. McCormick was incredible, and I’m amazed that she can carry that much emotion into every performance.

Liam Tamne’s version of Heathcliff had a broadly Indian accent, and it was quite perplexing at first. The accent was executed well, and Tamne himself identifies as African Indian. However, I now understand that it is widely debated as to whether Heathcliff was a Romani slave, as Liverpool was known as a world centre for the slave trade. By recognising this nuance, it adds depth to how Heathcliff was treated by his foster brother and how is reduced to being a servant. I thought that Tamne was fantastic, and I couldn’t imagine a better actor to portray such a complex character.

Another standout performer was definitely Katy Owen as Isabella Linton/Little Linton. Owen definitely drew the most laughs out of the audience, which was much-needed relief amongst the heaviness of the plot. Isabella’s naive infatuation with Heathcliff to the demise of her unhappy marriage was quite the transformation to see, and Little Linton’s mannerisms resembled his mother incredibly well. The intense facial expressions, nasally voices and exaggerated costuming made Katy Owen one of the most memorable and enjoyable performances of them all.

The sets themselves were quite simple, yet extremely effective at telling the story. Although there were fairly minimal props, there was a screen that was used as a backdrop, which created the mood for each scene, alongside a warm yellow light that came down. There were songs within this play, and most of them were quite folk-inspired, except at Catherine’s breaking point, where McCormick performed a rock piece where she had truly lost her mind. The folkish nature of the Yorkshire moors was a stark contrast to Catherine’s demise, and I thought that the storytelling through the songs was effective at enhancing the emotional drive within the powerful play.

Overall, I loved this performance. I thought that the cast was incredible, and they managed to maintain Wuthering Heights‘ relevancy and enticement. Although the performance was long (almost three hours!), I enjoyed every minute, and I would definitely recommend the tragedy romance, whether you’ve read the novel or not. Love, death, generational trauma and ghosts…what’s not to like? (Sophie Hicks)

And so does Backstage Access.

Let’s start with the musical backdrop. I’d happily have paid the ticket price just to listen to this folk quartet perform. And I say, folk quartet… one minute they’re a traditional sounding folk group, the next they’re a full throttle rock band, and the next thing they’re sneaking into the cast fitting in quite comfortably with what is an extraordinarily talented group of actors.

Lucy McCormick undoubtedly steals the show as Cathy. And she’s clearly having the time of her life. Which is utterly infectious. To witness her given free licence to pull out all the stops in delivering hysteria, pain, humour and, well, basically the full works, is a delight.

Elsewhere, there are powerful performances across the board, with Ash Hunter taking us through Heathcliff’s own journey from humble beginnings to wealth and tyranny, and Katy Owen drawing on seemingly superhuman energy reserves in order to have the audience at times in utter hysterics.

And laughter is one of the key themes here. The inventiveness with which humour has been injected into the story is impressive; from cleverly nuanced delivery of Brontë’s dialogue, to 21st century-isms and comic gestures. When it’s funny, it’s flat-out hilarious.

Occasional puppetry in the show is in equal parts, charming, effective and minimalistic: I’m not sure I’d have expected to have been convinced of a book on the end of a stick as a bird in flight, but somehow, in the overall context of this visual tapestry, I bought it.

Of course the most notable USP of this interpretation of Wuthering Heights has to be the personification of the Moors itself. And Nandi Bhebhe just owns the crap out of it. When contemplating the sheer size of a character, I guess the Yorkshire Moors is about as big as you get. The energy and life with which she executes it is tremendous – as it absolutely needs to be.

What needs to be said of Etta Murfitt’s choreography is that rarely is there even a sense of “I’m watching people dance here”. Rather, it’s so cleverly interwoven with the overall staging that it’s simply how we’re being transported from one time and place to the next, and at other times an invisible means of special effects.

I genuinely feel a little spoilt by the sheer volume of trickery and treats rolled up in this marvellous imagining of Wuthering Heights. It’s a must-see theatre experience. And I’d go so far as to say (just about) even worth inevitably finding yourself with Kate Bush stuck in your head for a week or so either side of the show. (Phoebe Straw)

Still on stage, The Canberra Times is looking forward to Shake & stir's adaptation of Jane Eyre (opening on May 17th).

The best-known line Jane Eyre wrote is: Reader, I married him.

Nelle Lee might say: Theatregoer, I adapted her.

"And now I'm playing her.

Lee, along with Nick Skubij, has turned Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre - narrated by the heroine - into a play for shake & stir theatre co. Jane Eyre, which premiered in Queensland in 2019, opens in Canberra on May 17.

"I read it first in high school and loved it," Lee says of the book.

And Lee's affection for Jane Eyre has endured.

"It was one of the first novels with a heroine who had an opportunity to speak her mind." [...]

Lee plays Jane from a child of about nine, an orphan suffering a terrible childhood - first with a cruel aunt, then at a harsh boarding school - to a young woman in her 20s trying to make her way in the world.

Playing Jane throughout, Lee is joined by a three-person ensemble - one male, two female - who play various characters as the story progresses. The role of Jane was a challenge - and not just because Lee herself is 35.

"She starts off a little bit nave," Lee says.

"You have to be able to play the younger innocence as well as the understanding of someone who's a little bit more worldly."

Part of the task, she says, was "not to play the endgame when you start off": Jane Eyre's character and self-awareness change markedly as she grows older, matures and experiences more of life, both good and bad.

"She has a very strong moral compass," Lee says.

While that might not seem like a bad thing, at times Jane's expectations are unrealistic and she is unreasonably judgmental of others, with an "all or nothing" attitude.

"Experience starts to challenge this moral compass." [...]

Adding another dimension to the work is the score, composed and performed live by ARIA-Award winner Sarah McLeod, who's also in the cast.

"It's rock/pop with a bit of balladry," Lee says.

One aspect of the production that was a challenge was the use of fire effects - they must be carefully prepared in each venue. (Ron Cerabona)

The Guardian asks bookish questions to writer Lee Child.

The book I came back to

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. As a teenager and into my 30s I found it arch, odd, artificial and generally unsatisfying, but on about my fifth try I suddenly found it wonderful. Now the intimate, through-the-proscenium narration made sense, and I felt the pain and the passion. Only 150 years late, but hey.

Writer Dinitia Smith has selected the five best novels based on classic fiction for The Wall Street Journal and one of them is

Wide Sargasso Sea

By Jean Rhys (1966)

3. In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre discovers that Rochester has a mad wife, Bertha, who is imprisoned in the attic. Jean Rhys doesn’t disguise her prequel novel’s effort to investigate female sexuality. She depicts Bertha as the troubled, unloved daughter of an impoverished Creole Jamaican family. Her stepfather marries her off to Rochester—he isn’t named in the novel—who at first responds to Bertha’s awakening sexuality. Eventually, though, it becomes repulsive to him. “I was thirsty for her,” he says, “but that is not love.” Rochester suspects her of being part black, which causes him to hate her for the passion she inspires in him.

GN Diario (Spain) recommends 10 novels to read before you die and one of them is Wuthering Heights.

Cumbres Borrascosas, de Emily Brontë

No era fácil destacar en un mundo reservado para los hombres en aquella época, sin embargo, esta historia de amor, desgarradora y apasionante, ha conseguido pasar a través de la historia como una de las novelas de amor más importantes del siglo XIX. La belleza de esta obra, no solo radica en la habilidad literaria de Brontë, que es mucha, sino en el amor tan puro entre dos almas oscuras, cargadas de odio y venganza, pero que al encuentre el uno con el otro se desvanece. (Sharon Arispe) (Translation)

GBH has an article on season 2 of Sanditon.

In episode 2, we got to enjoy an elegant dinner party (complete with some… disloyal entertainment), witnessed the return of one of my favorite shady characters from last season, and joined Charlotte for the first days at her brand new governess job. Given that I’m not a moody teen in the 1800s, I didn’t know a whole lot about actual governesses beyond what I’ve seen in “Jane Eyre” and The Sound of Music. How realistic is Sanditon’s portrayal of the governess lifestyle? And what’s so bad about being a spinster anyway? Fret not, gentle reader: I did the research for all of us. [...]

But Charlotte is too heartbroken to care about propriety (understandable!) so she lands the one job that’s even remotely suitable based on her position in society: governess. Young ladies needed to be educated, so there was a steady market for the position, but usually the job went to women who had no other options (Jane Eyre, anyone?). (Jackie Bruleigh)