Wuthering Heights – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

Artistic Director: Davis Nixon

Composer: Claude-Michel Schonberg

Orchestrator: William David Brohn

Reviewer: Sarah Lyth

The Public Reviews Rating:

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is famous for its raging passions amidst the bleak backdrop of the moors. The wild winds of the soul and of the changing seasons on the hills within the narrative of one of my most beloved books made me wonder how the Northern Ballet Theatre would translate such wildness into the most graceful of forms that make up the dance of ballet.

Opening with a terrifically evocative overture from the orchestra, rolling and pouring from the pit across the audience like the mists of the hills they convey, the curtain rises to show a creatively presented scene of the moor that is reminiscent of the beauty and luminescence of a Turner masterpiece. And suddenly in comes Heathcliff. A raging, brooding figure encapsulating all that makes up the highs and lows of love, loss, passion and despair. Yes, both the young and older Heathcliff were incredibly graceful and beautiful in their eternal pursuit for the elusive Cathy. Tobias Bately as the older Heathcliff conveyed the tremendously dark and overpowering emotions of Heathcliff in dance that was pure, heartbreaking poetry. The moments of his stillness, of his looks of longing and of his uncontrollable waves of emotion meant that it was the heart of the audience that was actively involved with the scene and not the head, heart ache often coming from places we cannot control. We too felt our personal heart ache along with the wild man of the moors.

The pivot of the whole of the narrative comes when Cathy, so long the faithful companion of the small and dark boy her father brought home from one of his visits to the port of Liverpool when she was small, makes a conscious choice to marry Edgar Linton. This choice is one which would assure her of security and wealth all her days. But, as so often happens, what her head tells her is right is not what she truly desires. As a consequence, life for many of the characters unravels and she herself dies after a flight of passion out on the hills with her beloved Heathcliff. If only she had chosen the wild one! Poor Heathcliff eventually goes to meet her at the end of the performance in a beautifully choreographed death scene. The lights of the moor godown, the haunting melodies of the orchestra strain and stress the wounded journey of his heart, a light streams down on him from above along with a fluttering of glittering, hopeful stars. As the young Cathy and Heathcliff dance about him he is finally released from his life of longing and reunited with his Cathy in renewed innocence and the most essential of true loves.

Wuthering Heights is a graceful, passionate and beautiful piece presented by the Northern Ballet. It presents the now timeless tale in a mesmerising whirl and melody of dance, form and colour. A feast for the eyes, the ears and, above all, the heart. Wonderful!