WUTHERING HEIGHTS. To 20 June.
Tour.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
based on the novel by Emily Brontë original concept and book by Deepak Verma music by Felix Cross & Sheema Mukherjee lyrics by Felix Cross additional text by Sudha Bhuchar.
Tamasha and Oldham Coliseum Theatre co-production in association with Lyric Hammersmith Tour to 20 June 2009.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
Review Mark Courtice 2 June at Nuffield Theatre Southampton.
A juicy weepy from Yorkshire - by way of Bollywood.
Orphan Krishan is adopted as a brother to Shakuntala and Hari. Growing up together, Shakuntala and Krishan fall in love, a passion that is doomed to tragedy by convention, class and Shakuntula’s need for the security represented by rich neighbour Vijay. You might not think it possible to make Wuthering Heights more melodramatic, but Tamasha manage it triumphantly.
In a pacy, intelligent adaptation they have remained remarkably true to the original while transferring Emily Bronte's story of high emotion to Rajasthan and telling it with a lush musical gloss. There is also sly wit; for instance in a splendid number at the Pushka camel races that refers to the Ascot scene in My Fair Lady - an act of good-natured cheek that pays off.
They call it "Bollywood inspired". This doesn’t mean huge production numbers but the show has the emotional drive and directness of the films. Characters regularly explode into Hindi, underlining and helping to give richness to the emotional bits but without confusing those who don’t know the language.
Music and songs drive the show on, with straightforward lyrics and a Bollywoodish score. The playback singing is well done, with excellent orchestration. Other production standards are high; the costumes are well designed, the colours uncannily like those of the films, clotted and deep. Itai Erdal’s excellent lighting helps this, sensitive as it is to emotional charge and also creating a sense of place. Sue Mayes’s set conveys the essential wide-open spaces for translating Yorkshire to India, and points up the similarities with back-cloths of rolling desert that look like the moors turned brown.
The performances are good; Pushpinder Chani makes Krishan attractive and dangerous. Rina Fatania’s Aya is splendid, full of energy and feeling, engaging and always watchable. Youkti Patel’s Shakuntala is sweet without being cloying. The strength in depth of this company is reflected in the fact that normally dull goodies are engaging, and the story-tellers have character, slipping smoothly in and out of the action.
This is a very enjoyable, juicy weepy, with colour, glamour, and sweet tunes powering a roller coaster of emotions.
Yusuf: Adeel Akhtar.
Baba: Shammi Aulakh.
Krishan: Pushpinder Chani.
Ayah: Rina Fatania.
Hari: Anil Kumar.
Changoo: Divian Ladwa.
Anita: Sheena Patel.
Shakuntala: Youkti Patel.
Ensemble: Davina Perera.
Vijay/Singh: Gary Pillai.
Ensemble: Amith Rahman.
Director: Kristine Landon-Smith.
Designer: Sue Mayes.
Musical Supervisor: John Rigby.
Orchestrations/Arrangements: John Rigby & Chandru of Bollywood Strings.
Choreographer: Nikki Woollaston.
Lighting: Peter Harrison.
2009-06-04 00:19:06