National theatre (studio)
05 February 2022 (released)
07 February 2022
Emma Rice (with her company Wise Children) is not afraid to wrestle with classics, creating something new from their seeds; usually magical and sometimes controversial. Here she throws the popular perception of Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights as a ‘romantic’ novel into the air and produces a howling folk-punk version for the National Theatre. She calls it Wuthering Heights; the Revenge Tragedy.
Running at 2hrs 35 the show gets under your skin. It could have been cut but then it may not have had the same incremental impact as generations of a family descend into darkness. The Moor is personified by a chorus lead by Nandi Bhebhe who sing and chant as would a Greek chorus but with a distinctly Christian psalm like sound and an English folk look, supported by an on stage band.
Luckily, there are moments of lightness in the gathering gloom in particular the siblings from Thrushcross Grange played by Sam Archer (who also plays Lockwood brilliantly) and Katy Owen. Dressed in ribbons and neat socks, they literally leap onto the stage, prancing around in the campest fashion. Then there’s the meta moments sometimes funny, songs like ‘What did you expect? If you want romance, go to Cornwall!’ and the ensemble carrying blackboards around with the names of the characters as nobody knows what’s going on.
Lucy McCormick (Catherine) has an extraordinarily beautiful voice belting out rock-style anthems and crying through the wind. Her twisted energy fills the vast stage and her savage love is a perfect complement to Heathcliff’s unspoken desire. Whilst Emily Bronte kept Heathcliff’s origins and ethnicity a mystery, only that he was adopted from Liverpool docks, Ash Hunter’s brooding Heathcliff is re-framed as an unaccompanied minor with a Caribbean accent contrasting with the rest of the casts Yorkshire, which considering Liverpool was at the heart of the British slave trade makes a lot of sense. Seen through this lens, the motivation for his revenge is even greater, and his silent rage has a psychological realism fitting for a contemporary audience.
