Mad dogs, or just English? ‘Wuthering Heights’ at Chicago Shakes and ‘Albert Herring’ at Chicago Opera Theater
Liam Tamne, Leah Brotherhead, and Jordan Laviniere. Photo by Muriel Steinke.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater offers an alternative to the usual maudlin Valentine’s Day tidings thanks to the visiting Wise Children company, leaning into rotten obsession with their musically imbued production of Wuthering Heights.
Adapted from Emily Brontë’s classic novel of the same name by Emma Rice (who also directs), with music by Ian Ross, Wuthering Heights follows the obsessive vengeance of lovers scorned between two houses of gentry in the Moors of Yorkshire. Turbulent, to say the least.
And an adventurous production, to be sure. Via devised theatre, Rice and Wise Children has a compelling take on the material, with a playful and pining ensemble giving their all. Curious and experimental, Emma Rice crafts a rambunctious and playful environment as director. As adapter, Rice puts a meta-narrative spin on the story as members from the ensemble read from the book itself, or address the audience directly about what’s on their minds. Other inventive liberties include personifying the Moors of Yorkshire as a physical being in the narrative who doubles as characters’ conscience, loyal servants, and anything else the story might need at the moment.
On press night, Ricardo Castro fills the massive boots of the role of Heathcliff, equal parts cold and passionate, savage and caring. . Alongside him, Katie Ellis steps up to the role of unstable spectre Catherine with equal daring and untamed ferocity. (The parts are normally played by Liam Tamne and Leah Brotherhead, respectively.)
Creative though it may be, Wise Children’s production might be better suited for hardcore theater school veterans than a general audience, being ultimately more concerned with aesthetics and ambiance than it is with coherence. It’s engaging, yet it lacks the focus of a more conventional approach, which leads to jarring tonal whiplash.
Rice attempts to fit as much in as possible in the three-hour adaptation, and yet heft chunk of plot are left told and not shown; meanwhile, an extensive punk rock solo interrupts Catherine’s emotional languishing, complete with microphone and hair-blowing fan. The approach to the material is fascinatingly child-like in contrast to the dark subject matter, but its attention span is unfortunately similarly child-like.
Composer Ross’s music gives movement and choreography ample field to play in the departments of movement and choreography (both of which are overseen by Etta Murfitt), and music director Pat Moran realizes Ross’s vision splendidly, as the small band sounds dramatically larger.
And the individual excellencies mustn’t be overlooked. Jordan Laviniere proves versatile as ambassador to the audience, narrator to the story, and faorementioned embodiment of the Moors of Yorkshire. Sam Archer is a charming delight as Lockwood and Edgar Linton, serving as both voice of reason and foppish sight gag. TJ Holmes is disarming as both Dr. Kenneth and the production’s cellist.
Masterclass performances and sweeping, dramatic soundscapes make for a memorable night of theater, but the disjunct telling of the intense subject matter makes Wuthering Heights an enigma to parse after the fact. Perhaps that in of itself is the point: senseless vengeance in the absence of love leaves a tangled web of contradictions, and those who bear witness to it must find the meaning thereafter. Such is a cautionary tale many would do well to remember in this most romantic of months, but perhaps chocolates make for a surer bet.
Wuthering Heights plays through February 19th at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E Grand Ave. For tickets or more information, please click here.
The Company, conducted by Dame Jane Glover DBE. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
The Athenaeum on Southport has gotten more than a bit of a reno in the last few years. For one, the cozy little off-lobby bar has given way to an expansive reception room. All the better, I suppose, to beckon home any longstanding institutions that have once played there, Chicago Opera Theater among them.
Fittingly, perhaps, COT’s homecoming production of the comedy Albert Herring—composed by Benjamin Britten, libretto by Eric Crozier—was something modern and bracing.
Billed as suitable for anyone who likes indie rom-coms, it certainly sported the saturated color scheme of a reliably quirky entry to the genre, while director Stephen Sposito’s Broadway musical comedy know-how kept things moving at a pace to match.
No easy task, that, given the stodginess of at least half its dramatis personae who make up a provincial English village council all in a dither about finding a properly virtuous Queen for its upcoming May Day festival. With no suitable candidates to hand, they settle on Albert Herring (Miles Mykkanen), a grocer’s son who’s not so much virtuous as he is an eternal mama’s boy.
And while Leah Dexter made for a formidable mama, Whitney Morrison as de facto village leader Lady Billows was Mrs. Spencer Gregson, Lady Augusta Bracknell, and the Bride of Frankenstein all in one, with pipes to match. Albert didn’t stand a chance in getting out of this, though Mykkanen’s yearning tenor made clear his desperation to be a little more worldly.
At the rostrum, visiting conductor Dame Jane Glover DBE brings Britten’s rich yet tongue-in-cheek score to life without pushing it. So, too, do the comic support. Wilbur Pauly as the plodding copper Budd really leaned into the foursquare couplets Crozier allotted him. And Vince Wallace and Veena Akama-Makia as Albert’s friends Sid and Nancy, respectively, were a well-matched, well-meaning pair, even if their lemonade-spiking led to some unintended panic. (The resulting mourning nonet in Act Three was well-sung as well as tittersome in its overwroughtness.)
In all, an optimal May Day balm in the middle of a bleakly cold midwinter.
Albert Herring closed at the Athenaeum Center on Sunday, January 29th.
For more reviews on this or other shows, please visit theatreinchicago.com.