Tears at bedtime in lovers’ sad tale

May 29 2009 by Barbara Hodgson, The Journal

Wuthering Heights at Northern Stage until tomorrow.

IN adapting a classic Victorian novel for the stage – especially Emily Brönte’s tale of stormy passion on windswept Yorkshire moors – you wouldn’t imagine India would naturally spring to mind as a backdrop.

But a bold move by writer Deepak Verma and British Asian theatre company Tamasha sees tortured lovers Heathcliff and Cathy uprooted to 18th Century Rajasthan – where, apparently, the show’s designer headed for ideas before creating costumes and sets for this Bollywood-style musical.

And from the opening yellow- hued scenes of sand dunes, camels and the sounds of an Indian market, they show that bold is beautiful.

Whirling desert sandstorms, vibrant colours, Indian music and breezy songs – lip-synched (very well) in true Bollywood fashion – conjure up a big-scale setting to match the epic nature of the tale.

Youkti Patel takes on the role of Cathy (here called Shakuntala) - whose father adopts street urchin Krishan (Heathcliff) played by Pushpinder Chani.

And they capture the raw intensity of Brönte’s lovers, from their young, carefree days to their reunion after Shakuntala marries their rich neighbour.

Like the film and TV versions we’ve seen, this necessarily cuts out many characters plus the latter part of the book, but it never loses sight of the heart of the story.

And the East-West fusion, which almost seamlessly interweaves Hindi phrases, cleverly finds parallels between the restrictive class consciousness of the 1847 novel and the Indian caste system; and between ideas of fate and reincarnation.

The Nelly Dean and Joseph characters, who acted as the book’s narrator and moral compass, are here too, with Rina Fatania’s Ayah a delightful earth mother figure.

With great performances all round, this ambitious production is quite an achievement.

I loved the book, which clearly stands the test of time, but even as stand-alone theatre this is a gem: a powerful story beautifully told, with a little twist at the end which seems entirely fitting and leaves a lump in the throat.

Barbara Hodgson