Wuthering Heights - National Theatre / U.K. tour

[ThereWillBeSun]

First preview tonight...

[partytentdown]

The NT is trying to get people to use up their credit by offering a tenner off current shows if you use a voucher.

[TallPaul]

Why would a production that has been touring for a while need to go back into previews just because it's arrived in that London?

[c4ndyc4ne]

It's not been staged for a while (since last year I don't think) – plus the show might have to adapt blocking, sound, projection, lighting for the dimensions of each individual space it visits.

[tmesis]

I decided to re-read Wuthering Heights again last year and I didn't enjoy it much. When I first read it in my twenties I found it spellbinding but now I'm an old git I found much of it tiresome. Maybe, for that reason, I enjoyed Emma Rice's production greatly as it's a pretty irreverent affair - although I still think done with love.

The novel if famously dense and confusing regarding who's related to who and she clarifies and finds much humour in this.
My heart sank at the start because, within around five minutes she used three of my least favourite theatrical cliches: cast sat on chairs round the edge of the stage, puppets and a step ladder, but the whole thing is done with such exuberance and drive that the (nearly) three hours flies by.

Quite a large number of great songs too of a quality higher than most fully-fledged musicals I've seen recently.

[mkb]

The result of allowing free reign to Emma Rice's creativity, is that she will sometimes demonstrate unalloyed genius while, at others, go so far out on a personal tangent, that the audience has been lost along the way. I fear her interpretation of Wuthering Heights has strayed too much into the latter.

By refocusing the narrative as a revenge tragedy rather than a passionate but doomed romance, the characters have become dehumanised and unrelatable. Audience engagement suffers. I wasn't bored, but I didn't care what happened next.

Usually with a Rice production, the music cements the mood and heightens the emotions of the characters. Here, apart from a full-on punkish number delivered by Catherine, which I enjoyed a lot, the folksy songs left me cold.

I couldn't fault the production values or the performances of the cast. The faults lay solely with the directorial choices.

Rice's signature theatrical flourishes abound. The pages of Brontë's novel literally taking off as birds in flight was a delightful metaphor, but chairs stacked upside down on top of another chair went completely over my head.

At one minute short of three hours -- and once again the National seems incapable of publishing a realistic running time in advance -- the show is overlong and self-indulgent. Probably because I had high expectations, having been a Rice fan before, I left Wuthering Heights distinctly unsatisfied. It's not bad; it's just not good enough.

Three stars.

Act 1: 19:35-21:09
Act 2: 21:29-22:29

[thistimetomorrow]

So is this production a musical or like Pride and Prejudice sort of where it's a play with songs?

[mkb]

Yes, a play with songs. I wouldn't categorise it as a musical, but I am struggling to work out how I would define a "musical". The characters sing, and there's an on-stage band, so I can't think why it's not a musical. Maybe it is?

[tmesis]

Definitely still a play with songs - but I found the musical quality high; sufficient to show up some recent musicals I've seen.

[thistimetomorrow]

Just came out of this. I wasn't sure what to expect and was unfamiliar with the source material, but I really enjoyed this show. It was a little long (especially the 1st half) and really quite relentlessly depressing, but I still had a fantastic time. The music was wonderful also. It kind of reminded me of Hadestown in a way, with the workers chorus and the 'Moors' being like the Fates. They even had their own tall guy!

[Dave B]

Ha, looks like we are at the same showing thistimetomorrow

I have to say I pretty much agree with the review from mkb above. Dehumanised is a great way to describe the characters on stage, I felt nothing for *any* of the relationships and didn't believe a single one of them. Whatever about the relationships in the book and their flaws, the obsession etc, there were relationships - I didn't see a single one on stage.

Clearly a production full of talent but it also felt like some actors were in a different play, Sam Archer's Lockwood and Katy Owen's Isabella & Linton were OTT caricatures which seemed both simply at times for comic relief. Clearly both following direction but different direction than anyone else.

There were bits that I really liked. The Moors personified as a chorus was great. The open sides of the stages so you could see Heathcliff pacing and almost circling everything. The ghost/spectre/memory of Catherine on stage throughout the second act. All things that worked great.

The casting of Witney White is really interesting too. Was it colour-blind casting and she was the best for the role or was it not colour-blind and this production is suggesting that Cathy is Heathcliff's daughter? The book does not have any such ambiguity, Cathy clearly resembles Edgar Linton and though it has been a while since I read it, I don’t recall even a suggestion that Cathy might not be Edgar’s daugther. I thought this an interesting addition and I like that it was just there and you could go down that route if you wanted to.

I have to assume it was all meant as pastiche. At times I felt like I was watching Carry On Wuthering Heights (minus the raunch). I did come out thinking it should really have had a title like some other plays about at the moment, Wuthering Heights (sort of) or Wuthering Heightsesque etc etc.

My partner loved it, she was captivated from the start telling me there is so much going on and so little of it makes sense that it's just brilliant. She giggles even thinking about it this morning.

For me I think it's a shame, the bits that I did like were great and I think if they had brought those to I suppose a more straightforward telling of the story, I'd have loved it.

Pretty full last night and just from eavesdropping at the interval and the way out, some very different reactions across the board.

We were almost slap bang centre. front row. I still think the early booking £20 'narrow' seats are great value but this was the first time where I really need to stand and stretch at the interval, a very very long first half.

[thistimetomorrow]

Feb 18, 2022 10:03:12 GMT Dave B said:

The casting of Witney White is really interesting too. Was it colour-blind casting and she was the best for the role or was it not colour-blind and this production is suggesting that Cathy is Heathcliff's daughter?

Ooh yes I was wondering abut this too!

[altamont]

Cancelled this evening on account of the weather

[TallPaul]

It's certainly wuthering out there, that's for sure.

[mkb]

Average wind speeds in London forecast at 18-19 mph now and for the rest of the evening. (The 40mph peak past a few hours ago.) Is that really above the threshold at which the NT cancels shows? Is anything in the West End cancelled this evening?

[Jon]

Feb 18, 2022 18:32:10 GMT mkb said:

Average wind speeds in London forecast at 18-19 mph now and for the rest of the evening. (The 40mph peak past a few hours ago.) Is that really above the threshold at which the NT cancels shows? Is anything in the West End cancelled this evening?

A few of the bigger venues cancelled like the ROH and ENO as did the Old Vic so it wasn't just the National.

[Dave B]

Feb 18, 2022 18:32:10 GMT mkb said:

Average wind speeds in London forecast at 18-19 mph now and for the rest of the evening. (The 40mph peak past a few hours ago.) Is that really above the threshold at which the NT cancels shows? Is anything in the West End cancelled this evening?

I have 3 mainline services and two tube lines available to me. All three mainlines are out of service and have not run at all today. My local tube station is closed (the roof literally flew off the building site by it and the area around is closed by police), the other tube station is somewhat running but with severe delays. Service was originally going to return to normal from 3, looking now.... yeah still massively impacted

I was due a show in town this evening and I had to cancel - at my expense - as I simply cannot get there and back. So I very much appreciate the places like NT and Royal Court and Old Vic etc who took the decision to cancel and thus won't leave people who simply have no travel options out of pocket. I imagine the shows that did go ahead this evening have a lot of empty seats and the quickest glance at Twitter this afternoon showed dozens and dozens of people trying to get through to theatres or TodayTix etc to look for exchanges etc.

[mkb]

Feb 18, 2022 20:33:47 GMT Dave B said:

Feb 18, 2022 18:32:10 GMT mkb said:

Average wind speeds in London forecast at 18-19 mph now and for the rest of the evening. (The 40mph peak past a few hours ago.) Is that really above the threshold at which the NT cancels shows? Is anything in the West End cancelled this evening?

I have 3 mainline services and two tube lines available to me. All three mainlines are out of service and have not run at all today. My local tube station is closed (the roof literally flew off the building site by it and the area around is closed by police), the other tube station is somewhat running but with severe delays. Service was originally going to return to normal from 3, looking now.... yeah still massively impacted

I was due a show in town this evening and I had to cancel - at my expense - as I simply cannot get there and back. So I very much appreciate the places like NT and Royal Court and Old Vic etc who took the decision to cancel and thus won't leave people who simply have no travel options out of pocket. I imagine the shows that did go ahead this evening have a lot of empty seats and the quickest glance at Twitter this afternoon showed dozens and dozens of people trying to get through to theatres or TodayTix etc to look for exchanges etc.

Yes, as someone in the Midlands, I understand that. Chiltern, WCML and Midland Mainline were all unavailable to me since this morning. But it's not helpful to look at things only from one's own perspective.

Plenty of ticket-holders would have been able to make it, and some may have travelled some distance in advance of the storm. (Indeed, if my show, Our Generation, had not been cancelled tonight due to Covid, I would have gone down late last night as travel companies were advising.)

According to WOS, the commercial sector in the West End has rightly gone ahead this evening, but were offering free exchanges to those who couldn't make it. That seems the right approach to me.

Unless there is structural damage, a storm that passed five hours ago, is an odd reason to cancel, and seems only to affect the heavily subsidised sector.

[barelyathletic]

Loved this last night. Having hated Wise Children (one of my favourite novels) at the Old Vic I wasn't planning on seeing this but was persuaded. Thought it was wild and moody and passionate and funny and totally engaging and told the story really well. Loved the music and all the performances and the atmospheric staging. All of it was hugely theatrical and wonderfully imaginative. One of the best things I've seen on the Lyttelton stage in quite a while. Highly recommended.

[mjh]

Liam Tamne taking over as Heathcliffe from Ash Hunter on 15th March for the rest of the London run / tour.

Anyone know why Ash is leaving?

[fiyero]

Mar 4, 2022 12:30:07 GMT mjh said:

Liam Tamne taking over as Heathcliffe from Ash Hunter on 15th March for the rest of the London run / tour.

Anyone know why Ash is leaving?

I just saw that. I had booked because Ash was in it, then delayed due to getting covid so am going closing night. I am sure Liam will be awesome but it seems odd!

[thistimetomorrow]

Oh! I'll definitely be going back to see Liam. It'll be interesting to see a different interpretation of the role.

[Being Alive]

Cannot imagine Liam Tamne in this role at all.

Saw it this evening and went in with relatively low expectations (didn't know the source material really and 3 hours on the front row of the Lyttleton is ass-numbing) but actually really enjoyed it.
Sure, act 1 is too long, and it's largely exactly what I expected Emma to do with it, but it's done with such conviction and honesty that I could t help but really like it.
Lucy McCormick (?) was so haunting and unsettling as Cathy, and I liked Ash Hunter a lot as Heathcliff.
Katy Owen once again steals the show and proves she's one of the best actors around working on stage at the moment.

4 stars from me - I don't think I'd go again, but I did really like it and it's a lot jollier than I was expecting my evening to be!

[imstillhere]

I thought this was a puddle of piss. Emma Rice is good at many things but she isn’t particularly strong at tone and character, the two things you need to land an adaptation of Wuthering Heights. She excels at anarchy and playfullness which is a pretty useless skill when adapting this sort of material. The production is all over the place, tonenally it has no idea what it wants to be and Rice has no control over any of the material. It’s overlong and self-indulgent and the interpersonal relationships between the characters are dull at best and worse full with exposition. Nothing Matters.

Ash Hunter was brilliant, Lucy McCormick was okay but probably needed stronger guiding and Katy Owens chews all the scenery as usual in her glorious way.

The work of Emma Rice is beginning to feel very dated. Theatre has moved on yet she still makes work which feels like a 70s regional pantomime. There’s more to theatre than this but Rice doesn’t seem to think so. Theatre needs new blood and it needs it now.

[stevemar]

I enjoyed this - up to a point. Haven’t seen much of Emma Rice’s work (other than Kneehigh’s A Matter of Life and Death some years ago). The explanations re characters were useful, and the use of music very good.

However, by the second half I was bored - possibly by the story but also by the use of the same devices. Breaking the fourth wall felt pantomime like at times, and I didn’t enjoy the acting of Katy Owen (Isabella and as Heathcliff’s son Linton) who must have been directed to play her parts in such an exaggerated way. 3 hours was too long when in the end you don’t feel anything for the characters I think mostly due to the direction.

Still, worth seeing, and good to see a pretty full Lyttelton and foyers.