Theatre, radio and TV writer Lucy said: “This play was like a stranger in the night, taking up residence and refusing to leave, bringing with it many unexplored buried feelings. It was a wild tenant, but also a joy to write, and has become - I hope - a darkly funny and honest play.
“It started when a TV producer told me to read ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë's novel.
“She was aware I had adapted ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë for radio and stage, and written about Charlotte Brontë. I was only vaguely aware of Anne Brontë and had not read this novel.
“In bed with flu I read it and was captivated; it is as good as her sister's novels and the honesty and accuracy with which she wrote about the complex relationship between a woman and her alcoholic husband (behaviour Anne experienced daily with her brother Branwell) stirred memories of childhood and of complex conflicting feelings towards someone you love and admire but who leads such a chaotic destructive life. I do not think I had ever read such a truthful courageous account of this sort of experience.
“I started an adaptation of the novel but quickly abandoned this to write my own play. Inspired by what it was that had touched a chord so profoundly, the play fell out! It is an intense, dark, sometimes violent but often funny two hander. (...)
On 29 August in Waterstones, I will be talking about inspiration and adaptation in conversation with Bella Merlin who has written books on actor training.” (Julia McNicholls Vale)
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