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‘A story not of romance but of brutality, cruelty and revenge’
JAN WOOLF recommends a play which is a marvel of ensemble playing, where actors and on-stage musicians are in high-energy harmony
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Wuthering Heights
National Theatre
CHARLOTTE BRONTE said of her sister Emily’s book “Wuthering Heights is rustic all through. It is moorish, wild, and knotty as a root of heath.” And so are the family dynamics.
This enduring classic has been adapted for movies, TV series, put to song by Kate Bush and satire by Monty Python, with soulmates Cathy and Heathcliff communicating with semaphore flags across the moor.
It’s been a set book on the English National Curriculum and the subject of many essays, my favourite by Andrea Dworkin claiming that the whole thing represents “bad emotional health.” And so it does.
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