Unlike the story of Romeo and Juliet, “Stormfule høgder” is not only beautiful and moving. “Stormy heights” is rudeness. Author Emily Brontë shows love as brutal, she casts long shadows, and she fills the characters with lust for revenge, stupidity and despair. Where Romeo and Juliet are beautiful, fair and loving, Catherine and Heathcliff are dirty, unbearable and brutal in their lust. What the two stories have in common is that the families around them make love impossible. In Shakespeare, it ends in suicide. With Brontë in wild fury and terrified that never let go. As a theatre, it is by far mysterious and wild, but it takes time before they get it going. PASSION FOR PLASTIC: The hearts of Catherine (Emma Bones) and Heathcliff (Ravdeep Singh Bajwa) burn and storm. They find each other again when she is dying, and she promises never to let him go, dead or alive. Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise Mørk uro Riksteatret is now showing Brontë’s story all over Norway. The extensive novel (which was the only Emily Brontë wrote), has been reduced to dealing with the impossible love between Catherine and her foster brother Heathcliff. If you read the novel from 1847, you will be surprised at how heartlessly the characters talk to each other. Especially if you are a foster child, the cuckoo in the nest. They shout and scream, hit and throw each other against the wall. No wonder Heathcliff knows revenge. Director Rebekka Nilsson has managed to take care of the unrest in the ugly feelings in this theater presentation. VENGEANCE: Heathcliff (Ravdeep Singh Bajwa) is driven by revenge, and this is largely due to his foster brother Hindley Earnshaw (Lars August Jørgensen), brother of Catherine. Evil and revenge become their path. Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise Indistinctly frightened The start of “Stormfule høgder” lays out various premises untidy. A so far interesting stirring and whispering session turns into Kate Bush’s song “Wuthering Heights” performed on wood organ by Lars Henrik Aarnes. Aarnes sings well, it’s not that, but the organ has no function in the vision. Although they sing the song about Catherine haunting Heathcliff, this is not made clear as part of the narrative. Partly because they sing in English, and partly because this song is, so to speak, the only explanation you get for Catherine haunting Heathcliff after she is dead. This leaves one of the most important premises hanging in the air. LOVE MAKES YOU BLIND: What do you do when you think you are right, but see that you are wrong? Naive Catherine realizes that it is too late when she chooses to marry Edgar Linton. Because then Heathcliff disappears from her. It wasn’t how she had thought. Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise Then it was also the case that not everything was quite in place at the premiere. The text did not sit well enough with all the shoe players, and the sound jerked a little too often. Loathing and love Framsyninga fell nicely into place in the second part. Then the scenography had changed to a kind of abstract landscape painting, and here Oscar Udbye’s excellent lighting design really came into its own. In the first part, the characters roam around the stormy heights marked as a kind of plastic covering on the floor. The stage was framed by light stands and ruffled plastic curtain rods. The plastic does not really give a sense of nature, but nevertheless underlines the wild and unruly nature of the story. The scenography opens up the landscape in the second part. A stage carpet that most resembles an abstract landscape painting is beautifully lit by Oscar Udbye. STYLISH SCENEGRAPHY: Here: Catherine (Emma Bones) and her husband Edgard Linton (Lars Henrik Aarnes) when she is ill for a long time and has little time to spend. Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise In the middle of this, Emma Bones plays the most unseemly little girl imaginable. She mixes the best (worst?) of a self-absorbed reality participant with burning love and decides to draw in a hurry. “No one understands me!” gaol ho. “I’m so sorry!” And with it awakens the important mix of loathing and love that is Catherine’s nature. Really absurd Both the servant Nelly (Ragnhild Tysse) and Isabella Linton (Mona Huang) make solid efforts, among other things to work out the humor and all the absurdity in Catherine and Heathcliff’s surroundings. Ravdeep Singh Bajwa plays a Heathcliff with a lot of hidden darkness, but he pales compared to Bones. GØYALE GREP: Director Nilsson has brought in a number of fine, absurd moments, a horse on wheels is used extensively, among other things, and constant elements of badminton are central. Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise Ida Wigdel’s choreography evokes a wry humor in all the absurd, and Katja Ebbel lets the same resonate in the costume design: A sumptuous and totally impractical dress for Catherine when she is supposed to be a nice lady, an absurd suit for Heathcliff when he comes home after many years away, an overly large and feminine hat on Catherine’s husband Edgar Linton. Costume and choreography are central to character creation and storytelling, and it is well done here. Childish and raw, Brontë’s novel is about the dark forces in people, so there is a lot to know. In the book, the wind howls over the moors, on stage it is mirrored by layers of plastic, fog and discomfort. Choreography, scenography, light and sound evoke this inexplicable magic that fills everyone at Wuthering Heights. Therefore, the preview opens up something for the viewer – even if not everything, for example not all the text, seemed completely incorporated for the premiere. STORMFULT: Catherine (Emma Bones) desperately longs for her Heathcliff, who has just escaped from her. She wants to go out on the moors and search, but is too ill, and the servant Nelly (Ragnhild Tysse) keeps her going. Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise At a time when romantic stories are trending on BookTok and it’s somehow allowed to like romantic stories again for young people, one can suddenly become curious about the book behind the vision. I see that as a strength. When Emma Bones childishly and crudely rolls around the stage with curses and self-pitying gossip, she appeals to the unbearable in people. We somehow have to like her anyway, because we know that the only thing she wants is love. news reviewer Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise Title: “Stormfule höjder” Original title: “Wuthering Heights” City: Riksteatret, tour in Norway By: Emily Brontë Director: Rebekka Nilsson With: Emma Bones, Ravdeep Singh Bajwa, Lars Henrik Aarnes, Mona Huang, Lars August Jørgensen, Ragnhild Tysse Set designer and costume designer: Katja Ebbel Playwright: Florian Hellwig Sound designer: Morten Haug Serigstad Composer: Mathias Sigurdsson Choreographer: Ida Wigdel Producer: Anita Basmo Bjørnstad Date: 25 January – 28 April 2023
ttn-69
“Stormful heights” with the Riksteatret – Reviews and recommendations
