Wuthering Heights (National Theatre and regional tour)

This boisterous adaptation saw Emma Rice playing to all her strengths. This was a production that showed off the hallmarks of her company, Wise Children: childlike storytelling; a distinct sense of place; and earthy folk music underpinning a story told in both song and dance. Lucy McCormick is best known as a solo performer and cabaret artist—here, with Ash Hunter as Heathcliff, she showed she’s more than capable of leading a National Theatre ensemble. (Kate Maltby)

Wuthering Heights, Villette

Brontës soar this winter, as two theatrical adaptations of Brontë novels open within weeks of each other, although they're not really sister productions. "Wuthering Heights," a touring production by the U.K. company Wise Children, sets Emily Brontë's oddball gothic in suitably singular fashion, with music and puppetry to heighten the drama. Lookingglass's "Villette" adapts a lesser-known novel by Charlotte Brontë, the author of "Jane Eyre," about the romance and intrigues of an Englishwoman in the titular fictitious French city. No "Agnes Grey" in the works, so far as I know, to complete the full sisterhood.

            • "Wuthering Heights." Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Jan. 27-Feb. 19.

            • "Villette." Lookingglass Theatre Company. Feb. 8-April 23. (Graham Meyer)

Emily – available to rent/buy

Sex Education’s Emma Mackey takes on the role of Emily Brontë in this biographical drama that mixes reality with myth. Brontë purists might want to give this one a miss as writer and director Frances O’Connor took some creative liberties trying to tell the story of how the English literature icon wrote her sole novel Wuthering Heights before her death. (Charlotte Vossen)