Theatre Review: Wuthering Heights

Based on the novel by Emily Brontë

Adapted and Directed by Emma Rice

Roslyn Packer Theatre until February 15

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP, MAICD

Admittedly, English period drama has not been a favourite genre of mine but the media release for this production of Wuthering Heights looked interesting and different.

This isn’t a faithful replication of the white-bread, 1939 film that starred Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Leo G. Carroll and Cecil Kellaway. Could it have been any more Caucasian than that?

This adaptation includes black actors John Leader as Heathcliff, Nandi Bhebhe as The Leader of the Moors, and Robyn Sinclair plays Frances Earnshaw and Young Cathy. All are strong performers and they facilitate an element of racism that isn’t found in more traditional interpretations.

More like the novel, this isn’t so much a love story but a dark tale of greed, power and control. The constantly moving, foreboding clouds on the cyclorama perpetuated the mood. Flashbacks to childhood provided the necessary backstory. What caused these people to become what they are?

There were some other production surprises including a punk-inspired song by Catherine who was outstandingly played by Stephanie Hockley. The song was a highlight that was performed near the end of the first act and it caused me to wonder where they could go from there. For me, they didn’t, and the second act turned out to be an anticlimax. 

I did have difficulties with some of the dialogue, with the frequent use of the word “I” instead of “me”. Dame Edna pointed out the common grammatical mistake by saying, “Excuse I”. Also John Leader’s thick voice made him difficult to understand at times.

Heathcliff turns out to be a greedy, power-hungry bastard and Little Linton is a Gen Z-type snowflake. That sums up the second act. 

For this latest production, Wuthering Heights’ purists will probably want to stay after the intermission to see how faithful it is to the novel and the films, but from the retrospective perspective of a normal theatre-goer, I would have been satisfied leaving at the break.