However, in this production of Wuthering Heights you can expect to be by carried through the story with music and dance and the ensemble who play the role of the moors and they will be your guide.   

Liam Tamne was the perfect Heathcliff. At the beginning of the show the audience are presented with this mysterious man who is dark and brooding but as we flashback to Heathcliff as a boy, we see him trying to fit into the new family he has been adopted into. In scenes with Catherine as children we see them laughing and having fun together. Tamne did well to differentiate between these different moments in Heathcliff’s life and he was very versatile.  

Lucy McCormick has a palpable energy as Catherine Earnshaw. Again, much like Heathcliff we see Catherine move through life and as the story unfolds and Lucy did well to discern between the different points in Catherine’s life. The older she got the more the audience saw her Character spiral out of control. Lucy also had a fantastic voice and her rock ballad at the end of act one was exceptional. I really enjoyed Lucy’s performance however I did feel sometimes she portrayed Catherine too hysterical. 

Tama Phethean played both Hindley Earnshaw and Hareton Earnshaw and both characters were worlds apart. Tama’s Hindley was despicable and horrible toward Heathcliff from the get go and then he would turn to his wife and be charming. Toward the end of act one I started to really feel sorry for Hindley’s character and the vulnerability that Tama gave to the character was very accessible. Tama’s Hareton was very much on the side-lines of act one but in act two his character came to life and his relationship with young Cathy was interesting to watch. 

Katy Owen was stellar as both Isabella Linton and Little Linton. Her energy was utterly incredible and the way she incorporated movement into both of her characters was fascinating. Katy’s little asides to the audience were hilarious and her comic timing was great. Her over the top balletic moves and beautiful lines as Isabella were to die for. As Linton she was the right amount of annoying and spoiled. Thoroughly enjoyed Katy’s portrayals as both characters.  

Sam Archer played both Lockwood and Edgar Linton and gave great performances in both. His character Lockwood is one of the first characters we see in this production and he was very likeable and comedic. Edgar Linton is again overall a very likeable character toward the end we see a man scorned by his wife but he has always loved Catherine and that really stands out in Archer’s performance.  

Stephanie Hockley played Catherine Linton beautifully, she was strong and independent and curious about the world. She was very accessible and the relationships she created with characters such as Hareton were lovely to watch.  

Craig Johnson also plays two characters in Wuthering Heights. He is both Mr Earnshaw and Doctor Kenneth. Johnson’s Mr Earnshaw exudes kindness ad we see this when he first meets Heathcliff and brings him home to live with his family. Doctor Kenneth on the other hand indulges more in darkness of the world. This can be seen in his speech about all of the people that have died recently and he asks “What is the point of it all”.  

Nandi Bhebhe does a sublime job at the Leader of the Moor. She had a magnificent voice and her fluidity of movement was astounding.  Nandi acted as the narrator of the show and did well to lead the audience through the story.  

The ensemble was an integral part of this show as they played the role of the Moor. They all had great energy. The ensemble for this performance consisted of Katy Ellis, TJ Holmes, Jordan Laviniere and all of the cast member mentioned above as well. (Alison Jeni Frater)

Which fictional character most resembles you?

I would have to say the depiction of my childhood self in Hideous Kinky, my first novel. But if that’s not allowed, Anna in Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark, and Jane Eyre, for her determination and her receptiveness to other worlds.

Seymour reserves most space for discussions of Wide Sargasso Sea, which some consider Rhys’s masterpiece. One moment in her reading stands out, in the context of Seymour’s interest in ghostliness: “Locked away by a husband who scorns and seeks to banish her (‘She was only a ghost. A ghost in the grey daylight’), Antoinette refuses to become another in that anonymous throng of nameless sufferers, that nearly inaudible incantation from the depths of the Great Forest”. It was reading this passage that I realised: Rhys’s fiction is an attempt to prove that she has been there, lived there, dwelled there; that the ghostly women she conjures up eluded even those they were standing before, plain as day. Rhys wrote to keep from becoming a ghost. (Lauren Elkin)

That said, I don’t believe any of us are defined solely by our circumstance – and ‘love-across-the-divide’, where seemingly insurmountable differences of background or opportunity are overcome in the name of love and fate, has always formed a classic love story narrative and structure. From Romeo and Juliet to Jane Eyre to The Notebook, we recognise and have a huge appetite for these stories. Within them, love usually overcomes all. But it would be naïve to think that, even today, circumstances beyond our control – be that class, gender, sexuality, education, or privilege – don’t impact on who we meet, and how we love.

I must be honest. I moved to Cornwall for love and a utility room. I was trapped in the giant squid of London housing and London schools with a man who hates London. We lived above a betting shop in Gospel Oak, and I fantasised about a two-bedroom flat in Muswell Hill near outstanding state primary schools. I even dreamt of Muswell Hill one night, imagining it as a walled white city like Gondor in Middle Earth, on an escarpment overlooking the City of London with flags fluttering on its walls. The gates were shut. My subconscious knew it and so did my husband: Gondor/Muswell Hill was closed to us.

He is a comic among other things, and he understands the importance of timing. I showed him the particulars of the two-bedroom flat in Muswell Hill and suggested that, because one outstanding state primary school in Muswell Hill had a vast, paper model of Jane Eyre in its library, our son must attend it “because it’s destiny”.