Charged with all the mystery and moody intrigue of an eerie fog rolling in over the Yorkshire Moors, this critically-acclaimed adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights from groundbreaking British theatre director Emma Rice has arrived at Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre for a strictly limited Australian season (with a cast of impeccable actors from London in tow).
If you’re after some light, fluffy entertainment surrounding high society courtships in ye olde England, then you’re probably better off staying home and rewatching Bridgerton. The one and only novel published by the second-youngest Brontë sister, Wuthering Heights is often misunderstood as a romance novel – but this is proper gothic fiction. At the center of the intergenerational drama is the relationship between the wily young Catherine and Heathcliff, an orphaned boy who her father adopts as his own. While there is a shadow of romance that underscores the central relationship; their bond is deeply rooted in hatred, pain, jealousy, isolation, misery, and despair.
This adaptation sinks its teeth into these darker elements, and it bites down hard. Rather than labouring over every line of the novel beat-for-beat, Rice uses Brontë’s text as a blueprint, fusing a range of theatrical storytelling devices (from fourth-wall-breaking japery to puppets) into an epic production backed by a moody, haunting score performed by a live on-stage band. The chorus (who represents the living, breathing embodiment of ‘The Moors’) infuses the whole affair with a flurry of evocative movement, to great effect.
Yes, this is a dark tale of wretched souls (from a time long before we were throwing around terms like ‘antihero’ so freely). But this twisted tale is a refreshing provocation, for multiple reasons – one being that it gives a proper shake-up to the over-saturated ‘genre’ of dramas that revolve around wealthy colonial families roaming large, stately homes in vast, soggy landscapes. (Not that there’s anything wrong with sugary romances with selective portions of historical accuracy, as a treat!)
Furthermore, this is a rare chance to see the work of one of the most important and acclaimed directors in contemporary theatre on the Australian stage (and to theorise about which local directors have bodies of work that can compare – naturally, STC’s outgoing director Kip Williams comes to mind). Currently leading the Wise Children production company, Emma Rice is best known for her work at Kneehigh Theatre and as the Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, London.
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Of course, all of this esteem is not to say that this play will be everyone’s cup of tea. The first act runs long enough to test your patience – helpfully though, ‘The Moors’ step in along the way to explain who is who, who is related to whom, who is romantically involved with whom (spoiler: those last two categories share some uncomfortable crossovers) and who is dead or alive (again, there are some uncomfortable crossovers with these categories too). This exemplifies how this adaptation strikes a perfect balance: it has a sense of humour about the source material, but it also doesn’t undercut it.
As Time Out London’s critic describes this production: “...any irreverence is effortlessly countered by the production’s evocation of the novel’s elemental wildness. Atmospherically, it’s a triumph, with Ian Ross’s thrilling live score built on roiling percussion and screeching strings paired with Simon Baker’s projections of tumultuous skies. It surges and crackles with energy: at moments of peak emotion, the music and the story howl like twin furies.”
The whole performance has the air of a dark, haunted twist on a pantomime. At times, you probably wouldn’t be surprised if the actors started doing circus tricks. (Although, disappointingly for some, nobody does a flip.) As film buffs wait for the latest film adaptation of Wuthering Heights from Saltburn director Emerald Fennel to hit the screen (with Aussie darlings Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi), Emma Rice’s version gives us pause to consider what a modern spin on Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship can offer us.
The question of Heathcliff’s heritage has long been contested by modern readers trying to make sense of the novel’s antiquated descriptors, and all but one of the many film adaptations have cast a white (or white-passing) actor – but here, John Leader’s brooding Heathcliff speaks with a Caribbean accent, and there’s an (understandable) implication that this hatred of polite society is tied to colonialism. A commanding presence with somewhat Nosferatu/Dracula-like sensibilities, this complicated character is deeply alluring even when he is being detestable. Similarly, Stephanie Hockley gives us a disconcertingly intense characterisation of Catherine, who burns up the stage in a frenzied musical number before her death (which our UK reviewer correctly compares to a “prime Courtney Love”) before her ghost remains to “stalk the stage like a smudge-eyed ghost, weighting the atmosphere with her presence”.
Yet, for all the barking this adaptation does about revelling in darkness and sorrow, it goes on to end on a weirdly cheerful note, which sort of takes the bite out of it. The world continues on, as the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff stroll together arm-in-arm. It feels wrong.
The relationships depicted in Wuthering Heights should not serve as aspirational. They’re a warning. Any time two people share an intoxicating bond, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ‘meant to be’. At the end of the day, at the end of a lifetime, the quality of the love you gave and the love you received is the most important thing (apart from perhaps, appreciating good art and achieving ultimate goth witch status). If you sink everything into a twisted, unhealthy romance above all else*, you might have to face the fact that you’re choosing to be a self-serving wanker who’ll never be satisfied, as Lin Manuel Miranda might put it. (*Disclaimer; in this scenario you can see the relationship for what it is, and you have the chance to get out.)
Alas, this is a clever production that definitely doesn't take the easy way out of staging a well-trodden classic text, and Sydney is lucky to have it. (Although, much like the book, it might not be everyone's cup of tea.)
Wuthering Heights is a co-production with Wise Children, the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal. The exclusive Australian season is playing at the Roslyn Packer Theatre until February 15. Find tickets over here.
