Review: Electric and brutal passion in excellent Loft production

Compelling, devastating, exhilerating, brutal and passionate, this brilliant stage adaptation of Emily Bronte’s celebrated novel is one of the best pieces of theatre I have seen for a long time.

There are many parallels of this dark love story to a Shakespearean tragedy - self-consciously so with the explicit parallels made with Romeo and Juliet at moments in the play - and these amateur actors presented their audience with a quality that measures up to the standard of professional Royal Shakespeare Company productions that this reviewer has seen.

The setting of the wild and rugged Yorkshire moors is conveyed in a simple, but very effective manner, as the basic props of an unruly tree and two raised sections are brought to life wonderfully by the changing sounds, lighting and use of characters’ movements. One scene that particularly stands out to me is when nurse Nelly (Maddy Kerr) battles an imaginary storm with the way she moves her body. We feel the chill of the battering wind along with her.

The dangerously destructive power and strength of emotions is conveyed so well in the characters of Heathcliff (James Allan) and Catherine (Romy Alexander). Like Romeo and Juliet, the couple are star-crossed lovers and fated to only find peace together in death. “I am Heathcliff”, says Catherine - and anyone lucky enough to be in love will know exactly what she means. The electricity between the two on stage is utterly convincing.

But when Heathcliff cannot have “his” Catherine, all he has left is hate. And though we resent Katherine’s choice of a higher class life, we see her transported to such a state of despair that all we want is for her to be reunited with “her” Heathcliff. Director David Hankins calls this adaptation, by Lucy Gough, “tremendous” and he and the rest of the Loft team have absolutely done it justice.

Sundari Cleal