Music Tom Kitt. Book & Lyrics Brian Yorkey. Lane Cove Theatre Company. Director: Lochie Beh. Musical Director: Stephen Dula. Pottery Lane Performance Space. 21 – 30 March, 2025

Reviewed : 22 March, 2025

Lane Cove Theatre Company opens its 2025 season in a new, purpose-built theatre space right in the heart of Lane Cove. It’s an intimate space, with a small stage that is very appropriate for a production like IF/THEN that is a complex, thought-provoking musical.

Directed by Lochie Beh, IF/THEN is about decisions, choices, and where they might lead.

Elizabeth, a town planner, has moved back to New York after a divorce. Her friend Kate, a kindergarten teacher, who calls her Liz, invites her to a concert in a park. Her friend Lucas, an activist, who calls her Beth, wants her to go to a rally. What should she do? The play follows both possibilities over five years, switching from one to the other.

Consequently, there are two plotlines and some characters that appear in both, so it could become a little confusing, despite the clarity of the dialogue and the twenty songs that support it! To avoid that, Beh explains that he chose “a simple set, unobtrusive to the story … and the use of technology, lighting effects and sound.” The four-piece band, led by Stephen Dula, snuggles in to one side of the stage.

Backdrop projections take the scenes from parks, to building sites, offices, libraries … with the switches between plots highlighted by the names “Beth” and “Liz” superimposed at the top of the right- or left- hand corner of the screen. It’s a ‘keep it simple’ strategy, but the onus is still on the audience to follow the action carefully.

Daisy Cousens tackles the complications of the role with experience and confidence. Balancing the two emotional journeys of the character, the changing tenor of the dialogue and learning a lot of songs is not easy, but Cousens manages the balance carefully and skilfully. The Elizabeth – and the Liz and Beth – she creates is believable and engaging. She takes the audience as a companion down both her pathways, sharing her indecision, achievements, joys and sorrows – in her words and her songs. It is an impressive performance.

Belinda Korner makes Kate, the kindergarten teacher, one of the most lovable characters in the play. She makes Kate fun, energetic, caring and sensitive – her character and her singing and harmonising are integral to the production.

Trent Gardiner brings a wealth of experience across theatrical styles to the role of Lucas, an altruistic activist who has known Beth since college. Gardiner looks inside the character to develop his sensitivity, his sense of justice and community. His Lucas is aware, emotional, caring, mindful – and once again, his ability to harmonise is integral.

Josh, whom Liz meets in a park, is played with perceptive warmth by Isaac Downey. Josh is an army surgeon returning to civilian life. He is gentle, understanding, thoughtful and Downey finds all that in a performance that is very believable – especially when he sings “Hey, Kid”.

Jacqui Greenfield is Kate’s girlfriend Anne. Lindford Gilmour plays Stephen, Liz’s mentor and boss. Genevieve Skye is Elena, who Liz appoints as an assistant. All three are also part of the ensemble with Luke Derrick, Mike Kulikov, Natalie Hughes, Amy Fowler, Zach Godsmark and Euan Howells.

IF/THEN is about choices, why they are made and where they lead. It’s a complex play in many ways and in this production Lochie Beh and his cast and crew have approached its complexities thoughtfully, perceptively and skilfully.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman & Glen Slater. Book by Doug Wright. PACA Productions. Director: Rodrigo Medina Noël. The Concourse Chatswood.21 – 30 March, 2025

Reviewed : 21 March, 2025*

Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid was written 188 years ago! Like many of his stories, it ends sadly. Fortunately, as we all know, Disney’s 2007 musical interpretation does not! There the little mermaid’s dreams of wanting to venture beyond the shore not only come true, but she finds her prince, her voice is restored, the wicked sea witch disappears – and it’s all told in songs that have become “part of this world”.

PACA’s production of The Little Mermaid merges music, movement and technological effects in a lively production that captures all that fairy tale magic … as well as reminding us about “preserving the beauty of our seas”. Like others in the arts, director Rodrigo Medina Noël and his team have a commitment to sustainability. To that end, almost all of the set is made from recycled materials, and the collection of “human stuff” in Ariel’s grotto “mirrors real world concerns about ocean pollution”.

Enough of the serious stuff! What about the colour and magic! Projections and multiple flies transform the wide stage from the calm of “under the sea” to the rolling waves of a storm above and the columned halls of Eric’s castle. Changes like this can be a coordination nightmare, especially if there are only a few days to “bump in”, but it’s amazing what PACA’s busy backstage crew have achieved!

In these scenes, a cast of thirty-three performers bring sea and shore together in a production that is moving and funny – and musically exciting.

As Ariel, Faith Sherwood charms the audience with the range and purity of her voice and her gentle, wistful interpretation of Triton’s favourite daughter. She establishes her character and her relationships clearly, laughing with Scuttle, pleading with her father and Sebastian, reluctantly giving her voice to Ursula – and reaching out silently and sadly to Eric.

Cameron Mayhew is a melancholy Prince Eric, unwillingly to take on the responsibilities of his kingdom – and haunted by Ariel’s voice when she saved him from the storm. Mayhew has a fresh, clear voice that finds the longing and earnestness of his character.

Sebastian is a much-loved musical theatre character and his “Under the Sea” with its clever, funny double rhymes is almost as popular as “Part of Your World”. Andrew Reed obviously relishes the exuberance of a character like Sebastian, giving the crab a cheeky energy and engaging audience appeal, especially in a game of hide-and-seek with the crazy chef, played by Mercurius Yousif.

Alexander Billett is the mischievous seagull, Scuttle, charming Ariel with a “positoovely” hilarious series of mispronunciations and “yaddle laddle”. Billett uses fine comic timing to establish the Scuttle’s quirkiness – and though he sings of an apparent lack of “style and savoir faire” he certainly finds some “zam” and “zow” in a marvellous tap routine that conjures memories of a young Donald O’Connor.

The wicked sea witch Ursula (Jordan Berry) arrives on stage in a ghostly shipwreck castle accompanied by her sinuous electric eels Flotsam (Laura Cole) and Jetsam (Fay Mancuso). Jordan oozes malice as she offers a deal to Ariel in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” while Cole and Mancuso slither menacingly around her.

Only a week before opening Jemima Dredge stepped into the role of gentle, sensitive Flounder. In that short time Dredge has made Flounder believably her own, flitting lightly on the stage as Ariel’s shadow and defender … and earning the awed respect of both the cast and the direction team.

Prince Eric’s valet and loyal friend Grimsby is played by Daniel Stevenson, who gives the character charm and just a little bothered bluster – not unlike the similar bluster voiced by King Titon (Simon Buchner) as Ariel hands him back his trident to wave the spell that will take her back to her Prince.

This talented cast is supported by a busy Ensemble who play princesses and maids, sailors and footmen, fish and tap-dancing seagulls. Quick changes of costume and style are nothing to them, and their enthusiasm and energy are quintessential to the production.

Rodrigo Medina Noël pays tribute to “the dedication and passion” of his large creative team. Musical Director William Pulley, and the orchestra, choreographers, vocal coaches, production managers, set, and costume designers and coordinators, and the technicians and mechanics who work their magic with lights, sound and projections. There is a busy ‘city’ behind a musical, some working with the cast for weeks beforehand, others moving in the last few days to give the cast “the wonderful things that surround” on the stage.

This production of The Little Mermaid is bright and colourful, a show for the whole family – but it’s only on for a week so you need to book quickly.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Jean Betts and W. Shakespeare. Fingerless Theatre in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre. Director Alex Kendall Robson. 14 – 29 March, 2025

Reviewed : 19 March, 2025*

Ophelia Thinks Harder is a feminist re-interpretation of Hamlet which could be described as an ideological treatise on the subjugation of women. Whilst using Hamlet as her model, playwright Jean Betts cleverly incorporates familiar lines from other Shakespearean works as a not-so-gentle reminder that productions of his plays have been perpetuating the denigration of women for over 500 years.

Written in 1993, Betts’ play predates the #MeToo movement by 24 years, an affirmation that Betts, and a generation of women writers and activists before her, have been de-crying the social, physical and sexual abuse of women long before 2017. The fact that they must continue to do so in the face of male supremacists like Andrew Tate is a sad inditement of contemporary society.

Director Alex Kendall Robson dedicates this production to the women who influenced his life and his love of theatre. His direction accentuates Betts’ feminist messages – whilst still paying tribute, as does Betts, to the 16^th century poet’s language, rhythms and comedy.

Betts skilfully twists roles and lines in Hamlet to show Ophelia gradually reacting against the control, derision and ridicule heaped upon her by a narcissistic, sadistic, supercilious Hamlet and a pompous, lecherous Polonius. Kendall Robson leads his cast to sustain the tenor of the play by effectively accentuating the meanness and malice but tempering it with comedic quips and comedia-style clowning.

The action is fast, often loud, often confronting. Set in a small space, in front of a portrait of the Virgin Mary – a silent but influential figure in Ophelia’s struggle against oppression – the ten actors sustain a rapid pace and high energy yet maintain the impact of  a very different interpretation of the well-known lines.

Understudy Brea Macey stepped into the role of Ophelia recently when co-producer/performer Jade Fuda reluctantly withdrew because of illness. Fortunately Macey had taken her role as understudy seriously and followed rehearsals religiously. She is gripping in her interpretation of a young woman torn between illusion and delusion – and the urge to rebel, even to “take arms against a sea of troubles” and effectively “end them”. Her Ophelia is initially raw, sensitive, hurt … then indignant, angry and defiant as she reacts against “the whips and scorns” of her oppressors.

Shaw Cameron plays a very loud and confident Hamlet. Never in this production do we see a procrastinating prince! Rather an over-confident, bullying, chauvinist fuelled by self-importance and rank – and the support of his sycophantic cohort. Except for Horatio, of course, who, played by Pat Mandziy, tries to unsuccessfully to reason with Hamlet – and champions Ophelia.

Zachary Aleksander is an almost ambivalent Laertes, torn between his duty as a brother and his loyalty to Hamlet. Aleksander who is also the musical director of the production, leads the cast as “The Players” in a gentle ode to Ophelia as the second half of the play begins.

Richard Hilliar is an objectionable, devious Polonius, Lucy Miller a shrewd and calculating Gertrude, and Kendall Robson himself, momentarily, the “Player King”.

Eleni Cassimatis is Ophelia’s maid. Abused by Polonius, ridiculed by Hamlet but steadfast in her support of Ophelia, Betts makes her the “unheard” voice of the women’s movement. Cassimatis gives the role the anguish and unwavering constancy it deserves – as do female versions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played colourfully by Hannah Raven and Julie Bettens.

Drifting through the play is the ghostly figure of St Joan. Plucked from Henry VI as a model on which Ophelia can base her burgeoning confidence, Finley Penrose wafts in at the end of scenes, treating the snubbing of barefoot Saint with a haughty “merde” – which perhaps encapsulates Betts’ message!

Alex Kendall Robson and this cast bring that message forcefully to the KXT stage, accentuating the clever reversal of Shakespeare’s characters and tempering the seriousness of the theme with satirical comedy.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Melissa Reeves. Legit Theatre Company. Director: Margaret Thanos. Belvoir 25A. 11 – 25 March, 202

Reviewed : 13 March, 2025*

Years ago I walked out of a black comedy saying “I can’t believe we laughed at that!” Last night I couldn’t laugh. In fact, I didn’t even manage to smile, because, even though Legit Theatre’s Furious Mattress is an incredible production and theatrically stunning, it is also gut-wrenchingly visceral and chilling. The domestic violence it depicts – control, restraint, religious suppression, oppression, repression, harassment, cruelty ­– in the name of love and “god” is typical of the usual ‘excuse for abuse’.

And it’s based on a real story, one that happened here, in Australia, only 30 years ago! Just one of the ‘real stories’ that we read about, hear about, legislate about, hold Royal Commissions about … but that keep on happening.

Plays like Furious Mattress need to be written and produced. Playwright Melissa Reeves is brave. So is director Margaret Thanos. The subject matter of this play is harsh; the authenticity of the action even harsher. Imagine getting inside the characters! A victim who is brutally killed in the process of an exorcism! Her ‘loving’ torturers! Imagine having to play them night after night. It must be harrowing, despite the bleak humour that breaks the horror – almost.

All four actors are experienced performers, but nothing really prepares you for parts in stories like this. Thanos makes that clear in her praise of her cast and her crew.

The action takes place in a small room, sparsely furnished, the walls and floor lined with rubber foam. On a double bed lies a dead woman, Else. Her husband Pierce and neighbour Anna are waiting for her to ‘rise again’ following a violent exorcism– which we see replayed in graphic action in the second act, carried out in the company of Max: “I was a plumber for four years, and I like to think that’s not the worst apprenticeship for an exorcist”.

It’s a funny line, I suppose – but what it suggests about charlatans is damn frightening. As is Anna’s protestation that she’s a “deliverer” rather than an exorcist. Both Max and Anna are scary, self-appointed amateurs, guided by ‘god’ to get multiple “devils” out of Else – a delightful free spirit who collects miniature dolls and like to read Mills and Boon.

Else is played brilliantly by Matilda Ridgway, who makes the character tenderly convincing. She finds the naïve vulnerability of the character, her tendency to disorientation, her openness, her confusedness, her wavering trust – and her growing fear. She does so with carefully timed reactions, hesitant responses, deceptive smiles – and eventually terrifying screams and shattering moans. Her control of the character is impressive.

Julian Garner is her husband, Pierce, a weak man, a little fatuous, gullible, easily influenced by religious teachings and fanaticism.  Garner uses a gruff, husky voice, sometimes almost whiney, coupled with tentative movements and confused expressions. His protestations about love and caring are insipid, yet his belief in his god doesn’t waver, especially when reinforced by Anna and Max’s denunciation of Else and their urges to violence.

Anna, played Alex Malone, is a tense woman taken in by self-belief and religious fervour. Malone makes her edgy, taut, seldom still. She is watchful, fidgety, constantly straightening het skirt, worrying her hair. There is despair behind her protestations of faith and Malone makes this aspect of Anna’s character very clear, especially as she waits for Else to “rise again”.

Shan-Ree Tan plays Max, the horrifying plumber-cum-exorcist who pushes Anna and Pierce to murder. It’s not easy to play a character everyone hates, but Tan does it well! He speaks cruelly, acts cruelly, treats Else – and Anna and Pierce – with disdain. He shows Max’s self-belief and power in a performance that bursts scarily into the play and becomes increasingly frightening.

There are ‘tricks’ in this production that make it “hilariously surreal” and effectively lift it from realism to black comedy. There also loud noises, total blackouts, a progressively loud and violent fight scene and a simulated murder. Thanos has gathered a large, talented and experience crew to support her sensitive, meticulous direction of Melissa Reeves’ very challenging play. Congratulations to all involved.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening Night

By Jack Holden. Fruit Box Theatre in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre. Director Sean Landis. KXT on Broadway. 15 -22 Feb, 202

Reviewed : 15 February, 2025*

n the wake of Covid 19 there is a tendency to forget the AIDS pandemic in which so many died the 1980s. Jack Holden’s play Cruise jolts that memory in a way that is heartbreakingly clear as well creatively theatrical. Director Sean Landis describes it as “a time capsule and a reminder of how much the queer community has gone through” and a tribute to “those who fought for the rights and safety we have today”.

Cruise covers four short years of that time through the eyes and experiences of one man and the many people who touched his life: friends, lovers, callers to the hotline, people who partied, people who cared. It reawakens the uncertainty, suffering and fear that spread through the queer community … and celebrates their bravery, solidarity, buoyancy, humour and love.

It’s 90 minutes of memories and a host of characters are all played by one actor. A daunting feat! But executed brilliantly in this stunning performance by Fraser Morrison. Morrison is a fit, versatile performer whose energy sustains him through the demands of Holden’s many characters and accents and Landis’s complex creative direction that has him moving constantly across a busy stage.

Morrison takes it all in his loose, elegant style. Whether waiting hesitantly at a call centre, dancing erotically in a disco, singing soulfully on a central podium, or thoughtfully considering the future with a sick friend, his vitality and magnetism pervade every moment.

He switches accents constantly in the many conversations that are Holden’s script, yet every character is clearly recognisable, not just in their accent but in the change of rhythm and tempo – and the humour that is central to so much of the script.

Morrison handles that humour with excellent timing and clever changes of delivery that are in keeping with the different characters and the times he meets up with them over the four years.

That includes the changes in maturity and personality of the central character himself, changes that Morrison introduces imperceptibly as the four years progress. Moments of anguish and fear are covered by optimism; despair is replaced by hope; bitterness by determined exuberance.

Landis keeps the pace fast, yet taut – allowing the tension and alarm of the time to pervade the action. The set, a series of different shaped platforms, allows him to move Morrison to different spaces and levels, giving the production an energy that is enhanced by lighting (Tom Hicks) and sound (Chelsea May Wheatley) that conjure the desperate vibe of the 1980s.

There is a sense of togetherness in this production, in keeping with the premise of the play, and enforced by the company’s partnership with the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, that has provided essential services to thousands of HIV sufferers since 1984.

But it is Fraser Morrison who makes that sense of togetherness real through his affinity with Holden’s characters, his understanding of the messages that they send, and the vibrant grace and energy of his performance.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By William Shakespeare. Come you Spirits. The Lounge, The Concourse, Chatswood. February 11 – 22, 2025

Reviewed : 12 February, 2025

“Come You Spirits” co-producers Charles Mayer and Jo Bloom lead this production that concentrates on the romantic tragedy of Shakespeare’s play, touching only briefly on the political situation that took Antony backwards and forwards between Rome and Alexandria. This means that only fragments of the play are included – and though the acting is moving and the language beautifully spoken, it is only part of the play.

The production is described as “immersive” and this includes as series of “slowing down” relaxation tactics used by the storyteller, Nathan Meola. For some theatre goers this could be unnerving or even annoying and perhaps should be explained more explicitly in the publicity for these adaptations. The word “immersive” is insufficient.

The production begins in the foyer of the Lounge, where Meola meanders among the audience, slowly introducing the scene until, eventually, Antony, (Mayer), Cleopatra (Bloom) and her maid-in-waiting Charmian (Charley Allanah) move though the audience to the raised foyer stage and take up the story.

In Shakespeare’s elegant language they expose the depth of the lovers’ affection as well as Antony’s concern about his critics in Rome. When he receives a message calling him back to Rome to join the fight against Pompey, and telling him of his wife Fulvia’s death, he rushes off to Rome leaving Cleopatra distraught.

Meola then slowly guides the audience into the Lounge where, in a sumptuous apartment, Cleopatra learns of Antony’s marriage to the sister of Octavius Caesar in a bid to cement the bond between the two soldier statesmen. Consumed by anger and jealousy, Cleopatra asks Charmian to conjure a draught that will let her see Octavia and the description of the plain Roman woman assuages her despair.

Back in the Foyer, and another lingering link by Meola, Antony is back in battle against Octavius in Egypt. When Cleopatra’s ship deserts him he is angry. Cleopatra, in fear, pretends to be dead and hides in her monument.

Meola then ushers the audience back to the Lounge which is now Cleopatra’s dark, candle-lit monument. Antony, cruelly wounded, finds her there, their love is rekindled but when Antony dies, Cleopatra calls Charmian to bring a poisonous snake, which kills her. So the lovers die together. As the audience begins to applaud they are stilled by the ever-present Meola – and Bloom comes out of character to take them through another soulful, wellness farewell.

The lavish set and beautiful costumes designed by Art Director Letitia Hodgkinson are a feature of the production. Fluted columns and waving palm fronds and golden drapes adorn the set suggesting the luxury of the nobility of the time. Cleopatra and Charmian wear flowing robes in desert colours and Egyptian turquoise with gold accessories. In a bid to “prevent waste and promote eco-friendly theatre productions”, Hodgkinson has ensured that all but 10% of her designs are made from recycled materials

This sort of theatre is not my “cup of tea” but it may be yours. If so, Come You Spirits will be presenting more of their adaptations in this very interesting space at the Concourse.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

By Emily Brontë. Adapted and directed by Emma Rice. A National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic & York Theatre Royal Co-production, presented by Andrew Kay & Liza McLean. Ros Packer Theatre, Jan 31 – Feb 15, 2025.

Reviewed : 1 February, 2024

The tragic characters of Emily Brontë’s dark novel Wuthering Heights have haunted literature for nearly 180 years. Was it just a bleak gothic romance? Or was it something more? What was Brontë really saying as she juxtaposed love and loss with brutality and revenge?

It was her horror at scenes from refugee camps and the fate of unaccompanied children that sparked Emma Rice’s memories of Wuthering Heights. “Wasn’t Heathcliff an unaccompanied child?” she recalled. Would the fate of today’s unaccompanied children be similar to the cruelty faced when Mr Earnshaw took him home?

To Rice the novel was no longer a romance but a warning, “a tragedy of what might happen if … we allow cruelty to take hold.”

“Be careful what you seed,” she wrote – and that warning became the theme of a very insightful adaptation that brings out the inferences of racial discrimination in Wuthering Heights as well the classism, misogyny … and dark romance.

If that suggests that the adaptation is didactic, it isn’t! It’s clever, fast moving, physical, and theatrical. It is storytelling as it’s supposed to be. Storytelling that uses action and interaction, control and connection, timing and judgement, movement and music … and humour.

Storytelling told by eleven multitalented performers and three musicians who personify the characters, all their frailties, the complexities of their relationships, the cruelties they inflict upon each other, their poor health, their loneliness, even the gloomy Yorkshire Moor itself.

Because Emma Rice makes The Moors a character – a Greek chorus that replaces the housekeeper Nellie Dean, who was Brontë’s narrator. Led by the expressive and energetic Nandi Bhebe, The Moors sing, dance and become all the characters but Heathcliff and Catherine. As well, they move props, link scenes, keep the audience up to date with time and place, and remind them who has just passed away! They are as serious, threatening and powerful as the moor, and as physical and energetic as the wind that howls over it.

This production is perhaps one of the best pieces of ensemble work we have seen in Sydney for some time. It is pure theatre. Actor based, skilfully directed and pertinently choreographed. There is only one “multi-media” device! And that the huge cyc of the restless Yorkshire sky, across which a murder of crows flies each time one of the Earnshaw/Linton dynasty dies. Everything else is in the action.

The company uses the full width of the stage. The performers are in sight all the time. If they are not acting, dancing, singing, playing an instrument or wheeling symbolic set pieces on or off the stage, they are sitting, in character, waiting, totally involved in every moment. They are not still for long – and they work together with total trust and confidence.

Heathcliff and Catherine are the constants of Wuthering Heights, the opposites that shouldn’t attract. He a sad, hard, vengeful character moulded by mistreatment and exile; she a wispy ‘faery’ of the moors, a temptress torn between love and social position.

John Leader takes Heathcliff from confused, uneducated “dirty, ragged, black-haired child” to the hard, unforgiving “gentleman” he becomes. Leader is a strong, compelling performer who finds incredible depth and dimension in his portrayal of this moody literary ‘hero’. He shows pain and disdain in the way he stands, his glaring looks and harsh, slowly spoken words. He shows the ingrained memories of his cruel childhood in impenetrable defences and merciless retribution. His Heathcliff revels in the power and control he has striven to attain and the vengeance he intends to exact.

Only with Catherine does he let down his defences, and then momentarily. Leader does not even allow his love for her to weaken his resolve.

Stephanie Hockley finds the little girl in Catherine even in the grown woman. The catch-me-if-you-can, will-o’-the-wisp that is young Catherine is still there in the married Catherine who plays her naive, devoted husband Edgar Linton off against the swarthy, smouldering Heathcliff. Hockley is light and lithe, slipping about the stage as she teases and mocks, ingratiates herself with the Lintons and pines for what she really wants. Her eyes are as expressive as her beautiful voice when she sings of the bluebell “the sweetest flower”. As the spectre of Catherine, who shadows Heathcliff until his own death, she loses the childishness. This ghostly Cathy is shrunken, sad, watchful.

Sam Archer is Lockwood – the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange – and Edgar Linton. A ballet dancer and opera singer, Archer is also a master of comic timing, and it is he who so often breaks the gloom of the story as he fights the windy night at the beginning of the production – or trips lightly across the stage as the guileless Linton.

It is a joy to watch how Rice integrates humour into the production using the multiple skills of performers such as Archer – and to see how the actors relish blending them to bring more colour to the characters.

Mr Earnshaw is played by Tom Fox, who finds the wholesome innocence of the man who ‘rescues’ Heathcliff but is seemingly unaware of how this ‘gift from God’ will be accepted  his children. Fox is a seasoned performer whose timing and experience give much to the production. He is expressive, physical, musical – and very funny.

So too is Rebecca Collingwood who plays Isabella Linton, a flighty young woman, easily beguiled by the cunning Heathcliff – and scared away by his violence. But she does give him an heir, Little Linton, who is also played by Collingwood. This character, timid, weedy and whining, Collingwood plays with perfect comic timing and gentle, quirky exaggeration.

Matthew Churcher plays nasty Hindley Earnshaw and the much-neglected Hareton Earnshaw. Churcher is athletic and restrained and holds these characters carefully in control until riled. He makes them tightly strung, conscious of their place and restrictions.

Robyn Sinclair is Hindley Earnshaw’s wife Frances, and later Catherine’s daughter young Cathy, restricted to the grounds of Thrushcross Grange by her protective father. Cathy is cheerful, trusting, optimistic, adventurous – and defiant. Despite her father, she finds Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff … and Little Linton, whom Heathcliff is determined she will marry. Sinclair finds the joy and naivety in the role and is a happy contrast to Linton’s anaemic whingeing.

TJ Holmes is Dr Kenneth, who Rice makes another comic lift to the production. Holmes is an actor and musician, who plays the cello when he is not racing onto the stage as the doctor to deliver a bay, declare a death or slip elegantly off the stage sipping from his flask.

Fred Double and Stehanie Elstob are the constant voices behind BheBhe as The Moors. Their voices are pure and strong, they move with grace and energy. With Bhebhe they are the mainstays of The Moors, filling in little bits of information during scene changes, leading dances as Archer, Churcher, Collingwood, Fox, Holmes and Sinclair join them in songs and routines.

The Moors provide a continuity that is more than storytelling. They add comedy, like the chalkboard headstones that they carry on to remind the audience who has died and their place in the dynasty, the cushions that are thrown to Little Linton when he complains of discomfort. They move the strange chairs-on-chairs and house fronts of wheels that suggest the Heights and the Grange. They steady the multi-ladder construction that is Heathcliff’s escape from reality, they assist with costume changes – and all the time they are part of the action, watching, aware.

This the second adaptation I have seen in the past few years. Both have been impressive. shake and stir’s production was dark and oppressive, its strong, carefully directed characters framed by flimsy swaying drapes and flickering fires.

Emma Rice’s production uses comedy and music to temper the oppression, and through The Moors accentuates the unsettled, unhealthy, class-based society in which the Brontës lived, much of which is explained in the souvenir program.

Go and see Wuthering Heights if for no other reason than to see a fine example of theatrical storytelling and true ensemble collaboration.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine

All production images are of the original Bristol Old Vic cast. Photographer: Steve Tanner

By Rainbow Chan. Director Tessa Leong. Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, supported by Sydney Festival. Riverside Theatres Parramatta, NSW. 23-26 Jan, 2025

Reviewed : 24 January, 2025

The Bridal Lament was a public performance of grief, a ritual where Weitou brides expressed their bitterness about arranged marriages and patriarchal rule. As such, its message reaches across cultures and generations. Rainbow Chan learnt of the ritual in her search to find out more about her Weitou heritage … and the result is a moving song cycle that reveals the multi-disciplinary artist’s incredible ability to draw past and present together through music, movement and storytelling.

The Weitou, from Southern China, were early settlers of Hong Kong and the New Territories. In 1996, as the British handed over the island of Hong Kong to China, six-year-old Chan, like many others, left with her parents for Australia, not realising that the move was to be permanent. Years later she returned in a bid to learn more about her Weitou heritage, the folk music, the stories and the traditions. From this came the discovery of The Bridal Lament and other forms of covert feminist protest against patriarchal control and repression.

Because in Weitou only men were taught to read and write, the women shared their stories orally. It was on an old CD that Chan found a recording in Weitou that described the Bridal Lament and the way young girls spent the night before being handed over in an arranged marriage.

With her mother’s voice reading the story in Weitou and series of projections, Chan explains how they passed the night with female relatives, weeping about their loss of freedom and the families and friends they would leave behind. Then, come morning, how they would pack their possessions into a trunk to be presented for the approval of their father-in-law.

Chan’s gentle interpretation of the ritual in song and dance loses none of the oppressive implications of the tradition. They are there in tense sinuous movements and vocals that are lightly tight and strained. But her story doesn’t dwell on that. More it celebrates the importance of knowing about such traditions, listening to the memories of the elders and keeping stories alive.

Rainbow Chan is an award-winning, multi-talented artist. She is small, lithe and moves with incredible grace. She reaches across any cultural bounds through the universal forms of music and dance, and a gentle honest smile that seems to say “Let me share this with you. It’s important. You will understand why if you watch and listen”.

Also Published in Stage Whispers magazine