Wuthering Heights – Bristol Old Vic and Touring

Ash Hunter and Lucy McCormick in Wuthering Heights at Bristol Old Vic and Touring. Picture: Steve Tanner

Wuthering Heights continues at the Bristol Old Vic until 6 November 2021 and then tours until 28 May 2022.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Daredevil director Emma Rice is back on home territory for the launch of this in-your face musical version of Wuthering Heights, a co-production with Bristol Old Vic, York Theatre Royal and the National Theatre. Her Wise Children company, formed after the controversial end to her spell as artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe in London, is based at the decidedly avant garde Spike Island Artspace alongside the river in Bristol, and among her productions premiered in the city have been Angela Carter’s Wise Children and Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers.

Classic period drama this is not, although Rice’s dark gothic approach is not wholly out of kilter as Brontë was herself influenced by the Greek tragedies and looked upon her novel as a gothic as well as romantic melodrama. Previous international productions have already relocated Wuthering Heights from the Yorkshire Moors to Catholic Mexico, medieval Japan and a Californian high school, among others, so why not vampire-strewn Transylvania?

Patrons attending future productions – after Bristol, Wuthering Heights embarks on a major national tour until the end of May 2022 – might well be advised to arrive an hour late, thus missing the deafening opening, the early screech-a-thon approach to the dialogue, and choreography for the six-strong chorus of Moors (don’t ask) straight out of 1960s Top of the Pops. But once Heathcliff and Cathy have separately declared their love for each other in the first tender moments of the evening, the narrative emphasises the revenge motif in the second half with an agreeable reduction in volume. There are even welcome moments of comedy in the bizarre courtship between Little Linton (Katy Owen) and Young Cathy (Witney White).

Ian Ross’ score, played on stage by musicians Sid Goldsmith, Nadine Lee and Renell Shaw, also discovers an occasional gentler note as it moves away from the earlier unimaginative, pounding rock.

Rice’s take-no-prisoners approach to the ill-fated love affair, and the subsequent family entanglements, may be on an entirely different plane from famous film and television versions of the past, but alongside sound and video designer Simon Baker she does provide some unsettling visual tricks as well as a hint or two of pertinence for today.

At heart, though, Wuthering Heights remains the story of Liverpool docks orphan Heathcliff and spirited heroine Cathy, torn apart by the mental and physical cruelty of those around them. Ash Hunter handles the vocal challenges as Heathcliff with aplomb, although he is a slightly more remote figure than usual. Lucy McCormick, in contrast, is never less than full on as Cathy, bellowing out her anger and frustrations at maximum volume, before drifting through the second half as Brontë’s symbolic ghost-at-the-window apparition.

You get the feeling, Kate Bush – of ‘Cathy Come Home’ vocal fame – would approve.

John Houseman