FULL CAST AND FURTHER TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED FOR
EMMA RICE’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS
With their latest production Bagdad Cafe streaming live via Old Vic: In Camera this week (25 – 28 August) Wise Children today announce full cast and further tour dates for the world première production of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Adapted and directed by Emma Rice, the show is a co-production with the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal.
Joining the cast alongside the previously announced Lucy McCormick (Cathy) are Sam Archer (Lockwood/Edgar Linton), Nandi Bhebhe (The Moor), Mirabelle Gremaud (swing), TJ Holmes (Robert), Ash Hunter (Heathcliff), Craig Johnson (Mr Earnshaw/Dr Kenneth), Jordan Laviniere (John), Kandaka Moore (Zillah), Katy Owen (Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff), Tama Phethean (Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw) and Witney White (Frances Earnshaw/Young Cathy), with music performed by Sid Goldsmith, Nadine Lee and Renell Shaw.
The production opens at Bristol Old Vic on 20 October, with previews from 11 October, and runs until 6 November, with livestreamed performances 3 – 6 November. It then transfers to York Theatre Royal, 9 – 20 November, and runs at the National Theatre in February and March 2022 (exact dates TBA) before touring to Cornwall and Norwich, in addition to the previously announced dates in Salford, Nottingham, Sunderland and Edinburgh.
The Yorkshire moors tell an epic story of love, revenge and redemption.
Rescued from the Liverpool docks as a child, Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights. He finds a kindred spirit in Catherine Earnshaw and a fierce love ignites. When forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed.
Shot through with music, dance, passion and hope, Emma Rice transforms Emily Brontë’s masterpiece into a powerful and uniquely theatrical experience. Lucy McCormick leads the company of performers and musicians in this intoxicating revenge tragedy for our time.
“I am Heathcliff! Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
With set and costume design by Vicki Mortimer; sound and video by Simon Baker; composition by Ian Ross; movement and choreography by Etta Murfitt;lighting design by Jai Morjaria.
Sam Archer returns to the company to play Lockwood/Edgar Linton – he previously appeared in Wise Children (The Old Vic/UK tour).His other theatre credits include An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville Theatre/Oscar Wilde Season), Wonderland (National Theatre/Châtelet Theatre, Paris), La Bohème (Royal Albert Hall), We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre), and The Red Shoes, Lord of the Flies, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Edward Scissorhands (Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company).
Nandi Bhebhe returns to the company to play The Moor – she is currently appearing in Bagdad Cafe (The Old Vic). Her theatre credits include A Monster Calls (The Old Vic), Fela! (National Theatre/Al Hirschfeld Theatre), Season in the Congo (Young Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, 946 The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (Shakespeare’s Globe), Boy Breaking Glass (Sadler’s Wells), The Tin Drum (Bristol Old Vic), Ubu! A Singalong Satire (Shoreditch Town Hall).
Mirabelle Gremaud returns to the company – she previously appeared in Wise Children (The Old Vic/UK tour) and Malory Towers (Bristol Passenger Shed/UK tour). Her theatre credits as an actress/dancer and contortionist includeLe Conte des Contes (Théâtre Kléber-Mélau), Peter Pan (Birmingham Rep), Swan Lake (The Lost Estate), Acrojou (Roundhouse), Falling (Complicité), and her solo show Sombre Sloughing (UK and European tour).
TJ Holmes plays Robert. His theatre credits include One Man, Two Guvnors (UK tour), The Hired Man, Love, Lies and Lust (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Mother Courage (Leeds Playhouse), Two Gentleman of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe/Liverpool Everyman), La Strada (The Other Palace), Hansel and Gretel (Kneehigh), The BFG, I Was A Rat (Birmingham Rep), The Jungle Book, The Threepenny Opera (UK tour), Spend Spend Spend!, Some Like It Hotter (The Watermill Theatre), As You Like It (Curve), Cider with Rosie, Merchant of Venice (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds) and What To Do When You Find A Dinosaur (Oxford Playhouse).
Ash Hunter plays Heathcliff. His theatre credits include Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (National Theatre), Pitcairn (Shakespeare’s Globe), Antony and Cleopatra (RSC/Public theatre, NYC), God’s Property (Soho Theatre), Unrivalled Landscape (Orange Tree Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Almeida Theatre), Gravity (Birmingham Rep) and A Clockwork Orange (Theatre Royal Stratford East). His television credits include Bridgerton, The Trial of Christine Keeler, Harlots, Death in Paradise, The Secret Agent, Wolfblood and Switch; and for film, Intrigo: Dear Agnes.
Craig Johnson plays Mr Earnshaw/Dr Kenneth. His theatre credits include The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch, The Railway Children and The Secret Garden (Minack Theatre), Alaska, One Darke Night (UK tours), The Sea Show, Skillywidden, Stones and Bones, Curious Creatures, Tales from the Trees, Myths and Monsters, The Christmassy Christmas Show, Shivers and Shadows, Universarama! (Squashbox Theatre UK tours), Tristan & Yseult, Cymbeline, Don John, A Matter of Life and Death and The Bacchae (Kneehigh).
Jordan Laviniere plays Servant. His theatre credits include All That (King’s Head Theatre), Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo Theatre), Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith), The Life (The English Theatre, Frankfurt) and We Will Rock You (European tour).
Lucy McCormick plays Cathy. Her previous theatre credits include Life: LIVE! (Battersea Arts Centre), Triple Threat and Post Popular (Edinburgh Fringe Festival/Soho Theatre/UK and international tours), Roller Diner, First Love is the Revolution (Soho Theatre), Dear Elizabeth, Effigies of Wickedness (Gate Theatre), Collective Rage (Southwark Playhouse), Cinderella (Oxford Playhouse), The Naked Truth (UK tour), Splat! (Barbican), and The House of Bernada Alba (Tristan Bates Theatre). Her television credits include This Time with Alan Partridge; and for film, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Uncle David 2.
Kandaka Moore returns to the company to play Zillah – she is currently appearing in Bagdad Cafe (The Old Vic). Her theatre credits include Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Jungle Book (Greenwich Theatre), BLANK (See & Eye Theatre), The Famous Four & a Half go Wild in Thetford Forest (UK tour), and Mid Life (Barbican/Bristol Old Vic – also composer).
Katy Owen returns to the company to play Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff – she previously appeared in Wise Children (The Old Vic/UK tour). Her other theatre credits include UBU Karaoke!, Rebecca (Kneehigh), The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales (Bristol Old Vic/Shakespeare’s Globe/UK tour), Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe), 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tipps (Kneehigh/Shakespeare’s Globe/UK tour),The World of Work, The Night Before Christmas (Chapter Arts Centre), Apparitions of Spirits with the Forsythe Sisters (Gaggle Babble), Maudie’s Rooms, Plum – and Me, Will!, Cinders (Sherman Theatre), Ill Met by Moonlight (Wales Millennium Centre), The Tempest (Theatr Iolo) and The Moon Dragon & The Wounded Angel (Theatr Gwent). Her television credits include The Story of Tracy Beaker.
Tama Phethean plays Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw. His theatre credits include The Great Christmas Feast (The Lost Estate), Man Muck (Etcetera Theatre) and Night of the Living Dead Live (Pleasance Theatre).
Witney White plays Frances Earnshaw/Young Cathy. Her theatre credits include Five Plays Project: Irreconcilable Differences (Young Vic), Light Falls (Royal Exchange Theatre), A Christmas Carol, Sylvia, A Monster Calls (The Old Vic), NOF*CKSGIVEN (Vault Festival), Room (Theatre Royal Stratford East/Dundee Rep/Abbey Theatre), wonder.land (National Theatre), Dusty (Charing Cross Theatre) and Loserville (West Yorkshire Playhouse). For television, her credits include Cleaning Up.
Emma Rice is the proud and excited Artistic Director of her company, Wise Children. She adapted and directed the company’s Bagdad Cafe (The Old Vic) Angela Carter’s Wise Children (The Old Vic/UK tour) and Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers (Bristol Passenger Shed/UK tour). For the ENO she directed Orpheus in the Underworld. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe (2016/18), she directed Romantics Anonymous, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales). For the previous 20 years, she worked for Kneehigh as an actor, director and Artistic Director. Her productions for Kneehigh include The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan & Yseult, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, The Wooden Frock, The Bacchae, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre), Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions), Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic), Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages), and Steptoe and Son. Other work includes the West End production of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Oedipussy (Spymonkey), The Empress (RSC), and An Audience with Meow Meow (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). In 2019 Rice received the UK Theatre Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
LISTINGS
Bristol Old Vic
11 October – 6 November 2021
Livestream dates: 3 – 6 November
Box Office: 0117 987 7877 / www.bristololdvic.org.uk
York Theatre Royal
9 – 20 November 2021
Box Office: 01904 623568 /www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
National Theatre, Lyttelton
Performance dates TBA
Box Office: 020 7452 3000 / www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
Hall for Cornwall
29March – 9 April 2022
Box Office: 01872 262466 / www.hallforcornwall.co.uk
Theatre Royal Norwich
12– 16 April 2022
Box Office: 01603 630 000 /www.norwichtheatre.org
Theatre Royal Nottingham
26 – 30 April 2022
Box Office: 0115 989 5555 / www.trch.co.uk
The Lowry
3 – 7 May 2022
Box Office: 0343 208 6000 / www.thelowry.com
Sunderland Empire
10 – 14 May 2022
Box Office: 03330 096 690 / https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/sunderland-empire/
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
24 – 28 May 2022
Box Office: 0131 529 6000 /www.capitaltheatres.com/your-visit/kings-theatre