Ferocious love and soul-destroying heartbreak should fill the Red Deer College Arts Centre when the Theatre Studies program presents a new stage adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights.
Alberta playwright Vern Thiessen seems intent on making the tragic love affair between the wild, “heathen” Heathcliff and the selfish Catherine seem even more gothic and eerie (if that’s possible) than Brontë’s original story.
The book opens with the ghostly hand of a child reaching through a window, and closes with the suggestion that Catherine and Heathcliff’s spirits are wandering the English moors.
But various other ghosts will appear throughout Thiessen’s stage adaptation, said RDC instructor Lynda Adams, who’s directing the play that opens on Thursday.
For instance, the spirit of the young Catherine will be present when the adult Catherine foolishly turns her back on her soulmate Heathcliff to marry the wealthy, milquetoast Linton.
The spirit of Heathcliff is also seen at various ages in the play, as is the ghost of Catherine’s bullying brother Hindley.
Adams believes these otherworldly appearances are fitting enough, since all three characters — Catherine, Heathcliff, and Hindley — suffer untimely, miserable deaths.
And as adults, at least two of the characters also make decisions that betray their child selves.
None of this will be a revelation to fans of the classic novel, or its many permutations. The story of Wuthering Heights has been transformed for stage and screen numerous times since the elusive middle Brontë sister first shocked society by writing the turbulent romance in 1847.
Emily Brontë was, by all accounts, a solitary woman who related to animals better than people and lived a sheltered life.
Except for brief forays for schooling to Brussels and a short governess posting, her life centred around her father’s parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
It’s easy to see how that bleak location, next to an overcrowded graveyard on the wind-swept heather-covered moors, inspired the setting of Emily’s only novel.
It’s harder to account for the passionate love affair she wrote about, since Emily Brontë had no known suitors before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 30.
The Brontë sisters did admire the brooding Byronic literary heroes they read about, however. And Heathcliff fits the Byronic mould, with his mercurial temper, passionate nature, and his propensity for emotional suffering and inflicting cruelty.
In the novel, Heathcliff goes on to extract revenge upon Linton and Hindley’s descendants — but the play does not go there.
Adams said Thiessen’s story ends with Heathcliff’s thwarted love for Catherine. It’s a neater conclusion and one that fits the play’s two-act structure.
“It’s already a very complex story that has a lot of implications,” said Adams, who discussed the themes of jealously, revenge, unfulfilled love and the past haunting the present with her 22 cast members — including nine actors playing the three versions of Catherine, Heathcliff and Hindley (as child, teen and adult).
She believes young people can best relate to the story’s overblown emotions. Some of the young actors were already turned on to Wuthering Heights by Stephenie Meyer, who used the book to inspire Eclipse, the third of her Twilight novels.
While the story of Heathcliff and Catherine is certainly melodramatic, there are universal feelings at its core, said Adams, who understands how Hindley’s childhood jealousy of Heathcliff causes his hatred. She even understands Heathcliff’s undying love for Catherine.
Adams said she’s known people who still long for the original “soulmate” they first loved long after entering new relationships.
Maybe these people are only glorifying what they’ve lost. But on the other hand, Adams said, “How many soulmates can you find in a lifetime?”
Red Deer College voice students will create atmospheric soundscapes for the play, which will also feature original compositions by Morgan McKee and sets and lighting by Edmonton designer Narda McCarroll.
What: RDC Theatre Studies presents Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, adapted for stage by Vern Thiessen.
When: 7:30 p.m., Feb. 11-13, 17-20 (1 p.m. matinees on Feb. 13, 20)
Where: RDC Arts Centre, Mainstage
Tickets: $20 ($16 students, $15 children/seniors) from Ticketmaster (not suitable for ages 14 and under)
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com