A fittingly tumultuous rendition of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece, Wuthering Heights
What a difference a week makes! Theatre Royal Windsor’s repertory festival is now in full swing, and whereas last week there was murder and mystery, this week we find a stormy moor buffeted by a maelstrom of emotions. The play is topped and tailed by our guide through proceedings, Mr Lockwood (Stanley Eldridge), using text drawn directly from the original novel, setting the scene atop the Yorkshire Moors and within the walls of Wuthering Heights itself. A story unfolds that is a familiar tale of love, passion, revenge and, ultimately, resolution of a kind. A story, perhaps, that is so familiar (with strains of Kate Bush surely echoing in the audience’s mind) that it would be easy for it to feel staid – but with its tight pacing and pitch perfect performances, this is far from average fare.
Charles Vance’s adaptation draws us into the world of Catherine Earnshaw, played with utter conviction by Sally Lofthouse, and Heathcliff, a brooding John Askew; it neatly taps into Emily Bronte’s use of flashbacks and the narrative skills of the ever-stable “Nelly” (Emily Outred). As a childhood friendship develops into something more deeply passionate, Catherine and Heathcliff’s very natures prevent them from allowing themselves to be happy: Catherine is capricious – both her most tender and cruellest moments beautifully observed in scenes with Nelly – and Heathcliff is so filled with bitterness and revenge that he is unable to grasp happiness.
And so it is that they turn their attention onto the hapless Lintons – guilelessly brought to life by Liam Nooney (Edgar) and Sian Morgan (Isabella). The production offers a few moments of levity but the overall mood is sombre and often threatening, particularly evident when Heathcliff turns against his former aggressor, Hindley (Mark Laverty), with such ferocity that it takes your breath away.
It is not the cast alone who are stars of this show, however, Andrew Becket’s set manages to depict in-one the dishevelled kitchen of Wuthering Heights and the refined parlour of Thrushcross Grange. Bronte’s landscape, so important in the novel, is subtly implied by huge floor-to-ceiling windows inviting the audience to imagine the moors beyond; add to this William Brann’s stormy lighting and the combined effect is one which goes beyond simply turning Bronte’s words into speech.
Wuthering Heights is another success for this year’s repertory festival in Windsor, and it just waits to be seen if they can pull it off again in their final show of the season, Ladies in Lavender. Watch this space.
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