The cast for the US premiere of Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights has been announced and is reported by West End Best Friend.
The co-production with the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal, in association with Berkeley Repertory Theater, makes its US première at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York, on 14 October, before touring to Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, with more dates to be announced.For the New York leg of the tour, Rice directs Sam Archer (Wise Children, The Old Vic/UK tour).as Lockwood/Edgar Linton, Steph Elstob (Edward Scissorhands, Sadler’s Wells) as understudy, Nandi Bhebhe (Bagdad Cafe, The Old Vic) as The Yorkshire Moor, Katy Ellis as swing, Lloyd Gorman (Whistle Down The Wind, Watermill Theatre) as Mr Earnshaw/Robert, TJ Holmes (One Man, Two Guvnors, UK tour) as Dr Kenneth, Jordan Laviniere (All That, King’s Head Theatre) as Zillah, Lucy McCormick (Life: LIVE!, Battersea Arts Centre) as Catherine, Katy Owen (Wise Children, The Old Vic/UK tour) as Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff, Tama Phethean (The Great Christmas Feast, The Lost Estate) as Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw, Eleanor Sutton (Jane Eyre, Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic) as Frances Earnshaw/Young Cathy, and Liam Tamne (The Prince of Egypt, West End) as Heathcliff, with music performed by Sid Goldsmith, Pat Moran and Jeevan Singh.Joining the cast from Berkeley Rep onwards are Georgia Bruce (Fisherman’s Friends, UK tour) as Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff, Leah Brotherhead (Gulliver’s Travels, Unicorn Theatre) as Catherine, Ricardo Castro (Fame – The Musical, Tyrone Jackson Theatre) as Jonathan and Katy Ellis (Malory Towers, Wise Children) as Zillah, with Jordan Laviniere taking on the role of The Yorkshire Moor. [...]The production features set and costume design by Vicki Mortimer, sound and video by Simon Baker, composition by Ian Ross, lighting by Jai Morjaria, and movement and choreography by Etta Murfitt. (Jenny Ell)
Also on Playbill.
That Shelf reviews Frances O'Connor's Emily:
Platform’s opening night selection set a good bar for the competition. Emily, the directorial debut of actor Frances O’Connor, offered an unexpectedly unconventional Brontë biopic. The film imagines the love story that inspired Brontë to pen her classic Wuthering Heights, but O’Connor doesn’t opt for the Gothic romance one might assume is behind the tale. Instead, this is the story of Emily Brontë told with a nod and a wink. O’Connor seems more indebted to Fleabag than to previous takes on the Brontë classic. Emma Mackay plays Brontë with a beguiling, mirthful charm. She’s very aware of the camera in the way Phoebe Waller-Bridge breaks the fourth wall with a knowing smirk. Emily is a delight that captures the essence of a book, an author, and a woman while reinventing all three anew. One hopes to see more from O’Connor behind the camera after this ravishing debut. (Pat Mullen)
Evening Standard recommends the film among other 'films you need to watch in autumn 2022'.
EmilyBrontë fans will be very closely watching this biopic of their heroine Emily, starring Sex Education’s Emma Mackey, which follows the author in the leadup to her masterpiece, Wuthering Heights. Early signs are good for Frances O’Connell’s film, with rave reviews from Venice [Toronto, actually].Oct 14 (Nancy Durrant)
The Glasgow Guardian has an article on where to start with the classics.
Albeit polarising, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is another classic from the same era that holds a special place in my heart. My heart, that is. It’s dark and depressing - something I merit in a Gothic novel - and might just make you cry, either from misery or exhaustion, but beware, one GoodReads individual is fabled to have lost all desire for reading because of this book… (Leah Hart)
Locus interviews musician Hiron Ennes about their debut novel Leech.
Leech has been described as a combination of Gothic horror and science fiction. What works in the Gothic tradition influenced you, and what’s the appeal of Gothic fiction in the 21st century?I’m a sucker for the classics. In middle school I was very much into Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Phantom of the Opera—creepy houses and candelabras and the pathologically dysfunctional ruling class. I’ve seen Leech compared to Wuthering Heights, but I think the Brontë-ness might be aesthetic for the most part.
La Izquierda Diario (Argentina) features writer Mariana Enríquez who has been a great fan of Wuthering Heights for decades now.
“Todo empezó con la literatura, antes que con la música. De ahí vienen los temas que se reiteran en mí. En mi casa había una colección de libros que se llamaba Club Bruguera. Como ya era obsesiva, los leía por orden. El primero era A sangre fría, de Truman Capote. Pero lo primero que me impresionó fue Cumbres Borrascosas de Emily Brontë”. La autora leyó un pasaje que inspiró una escena de Nuestra parte de noche. “Lo leí cuando tenía 9 años y terminó en algo que escribí a los cuarenta y pico”. (Cecilia Rodríguez) (Translation)
Cuba Información discusses the Western literary canon and its traditional treatment of women writers.
En 1848, Percy Edwin Whipple escribiría una crítica de Jane Eyre para el North American Review. En dicho texto, Whipple defendería la idea de que la novela había sido escrita por dos personas, un hermano y una hermana, puesto que “existen detalles en los pensamientos y en las emociones de la mente de una mujer que… a menudo pasan desapercibidas a las escritoras”. [...]Las escasas consagradas, que, pese a todo, han sido reconocidas como parte de «lOs» Grandes, corren el riesgo de que se distorsione su éxito. Es posible que la Academia haga uso del mito del logro aislado, — o en otras palabras — que afirme que, de la totalidad de obras de una escritora (cualquiera que fuere), únicamente es importante estudiar una novela, o un puñado de poemas, pues, el resto se considera desechable. De Mary Shelley Frankenstein, y no El último hombre. De Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre, mas no Villette.La premisa de que «pocas bastan», no solo se aplica al estudio y reconocimiento de sus escritos, sino también a la inserción de autoras en antologías literarias. Habitualmente, el porciento de nombres femeninos en las compilaciones es ínfimo. (Lari Perez Rodriguez) (Translation)
An estimate from a Book Riot contributor:
While fairy tales and Pride and Prejudice (and a few other 19th century classics like Jane Eyre and Little Women) probably count for a good 75 percent of the most prominent retellings in romance. . . (Jessica Pryde)
Les inrockuptibles (France) finds echoes of Jane Eyre in the film Don’t Worry Darling.
Toute la belle vibration du film – trop flashy, trop fort, trop “tout”, comme si l’aliénation féminine devait se payer en retour par une certaine idée du mauvais goût – tient à cette folie curieuse qui pousse le personnage de Florence Pugh (parfaite), héritière des héroïnes gothiques classiques, à forcer les portes qu’elle n’auraient jamais dû franchir, sur le même modèle que les épouses d’abord dociles de Barbe bleue et du Secret derrière la porte, en passant par Jane Eyre ou Rebecca. C’est ce travail de fouille et d’investigation furieuse qui va casser la composition en spirale de Don’t Worry Darling – manière de dénoncer ces vies conditionnées de desperate housewives tournant en rond. (Translation)
Duna (Chile) reads a Spanish translation of an 1849 letter by Charlotte Brontë.
