Classic literature fanatics and theatre buffs will unite at QPAC this June, when Brisbane's shake & stir theatre company return home with the critically-acclaimed ‘Wuthering Heights’.
As some of the country’s best stage adaptors, well-loved shake & stir are capping off their tour of the production in Brisbane, after a 4-month, 65-date tour around Australia.
The play’s Director, Writer and even one of the cast members, Nick Skubij, adapted the Emily Brontë classic back in 2014, originally for a 4-week showing of the retelling of the complicated Heathcliff and Catherine story. Their first season was a sell-out, and so the company are returning to showcase ‘Wuthering Heights’ to literary lovers and the company’s strong local following, that continues to grow a decade after their conception.
In true shake & stir style, the production will undoubtedly be an overwhelming sensory experience, as the characters are exposed to the elements, both physically and mentally. Accompanying the tragedy, revenge and lost love of the classic story, crowds will be literally blown away with real fire, giant industrial fan-made winds and even onstage rain during the 10 performances.
“It takes you on an enormous roller coaster of many emotions, and many different circumstances. It's quite horrific to watch at times, because you're just watching these events unfold as the audience,” Gemma Willing, shake & stir debut actress playing Catherine, says.
“You know what’s going to happen, but the characters don’t. So there’s that awful feeling of 'oh God’ and you're just waiting in anticipation to see it all come crashing down.”
Though a classic, the age-old emotional battle faced by Catherine is one that can be easily related to our modern world. “She has this eternal battle between her head and her heart. Does she go for someone that she loves, or does she go for someone that she thinks she should be with?
“It’s this battle of society versus following her heart. Even though that’s something that was really prevalent in Victorian culture, I think it’s still really relevant today. Should you do what you want to do, should you do what you think you should do, or what other people expect you do to?
“She never actually follows her heart and she does what she thinks she should do rather than what she wants to, and I think that’s a really heartbreaking thing to see anyone go through, because you see their struggle and that they never actually get to do what they want.”
Nelle Lee as Isabella A ‘Wuthering Heights’ lover, Gemma jumped at the chance explore such a beautiful literature role for her debut production with shake & stir. “I’ve never really had the opportunity to be able to explore a role for such a long period of time,” she says. “It’s a really fortunate position to be in, because it gives you the opportunity to really delve in[to the character] and find new and different things every day.”
Though it's their second Brisbane season, audiences can certainly expect something bigger and better than the performances of 2014. “I think [the production] grows and digs itself deeper into the roots of the story every show. You find new, different nuances every time we perform.”
'Wuthering Heights' performs Queensland Performing Arts Centre 12-19 June.
