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Bronte's classic story based on the tetrahedral plot involving Heathcliff, Cathy, Edgar and Isabella makes an ideal subject for NBT. Opportunities abound for relationship-building accross the diagonals, with all the attendant love, hate, resentment, jealousy, anguish, torment - you name it - it's there! David Nixon's choreography bounds effortlessly through the storyline with rapid and seamless scene changes to and fro between bleak moorland (lots of scope for dri-ice, snow and cunning lighting effects), the gloomy kitchen of Wuthering heights, a gambling scene, the luxurious garden party and ballroom of Thrushcross Grange, and eventually the deathbed.

What astonished me was the enormous variety of dance action. There was something for every taste, from rolling around on the floor frolicks to some quite classy classical stuff. The ballroom scene, whilst not quite in the Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty bracket, was impressive nevertheless with even a mini 'grand pas de deux' and some lovely 'classical style' dancing. In fact there were were several superb pas de deux with MacMillanesque lifts as the relationships developed, and I thought one of the best (well, actually I suppose it was a pas de quatre) was between Heathcliffe, Isabella, the kitchen table and a horse-riding crop.

Charlotte Talbot as Cathy in David Nixon's Wuthering Heights
Photograph by John Ross ©

There were three partnerships of Cathy and Heathcliffe: 'child', 'young' and 'mature' (except that Pollyanna Th'ng doubled as the child and young Cathy). I wondered if this was going to confuse me, with all the flash-backs and apparitions in dreams but it worked really well, often the pairs overlapping and it was always clear what was going on. I recall one particular moment when the 'young' couple were rolling around on the floor (the moor) and they rolled away from each other into the wings, to be replaced by the 'mature' pair who rolled back and met up in the middle, and the dancing changed with stunning contrast from youthful frolicks to more serious stuff. And I thought the 'young' Cathy holding the train of 'mature' Cathy's wedding dress was poignant symbolism.

Jonathan Olliver as 'mature' Heathcliffe showed all the brooding, moody, vengeful qualities that you would expect, and Desiré Samaai was an eye-catching, flirtatious and submissive Isabella. Hironao Takahashi was a sensitive Edgar, who really looked as if he had fallen in love with Cathy and was obviously devastated by her illness and death. And the brisé jumps in his joy of being in love were a sight to behold! Pollyanna was an absolutely delightful 'young' Cathy, conveying the abandon of young love so well.

Charlotte Talbot as Cathy in David Nixon's Wuthering Heights
Photograph by John Ross ©

Claude-Michel Schönberg's specially comissioned score (played by the NBT Orchestra under the baton of Nigel Gaynor) was evocative with the eerie beating moorland themes, frolicking waltz for badminton on the lawn, and gentle melodies for the love scenes. Worth getting the CD when it comes out.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Oooops! I don't seem to have said much about 'mature' Cathy! It has been a pleasure to watch Charlotte Talbot's career develop over the years I have been seeing NBT. I think she is now a truly beautiful and elegant dancer who gave a wonderful potrayal of Cathy's character in all its facets.

I'm not sure how Wuthering Heights will hold up against NBT's perennial classics like A Simple Man, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol and, more recently, Madame Butterfly, but I enjoyed it as least as much as most of their other productions I've seen. You take the company for what they are - don't expect the technical prowess of a large company with several back-up casts, but simply enjoy the youthful vigour and enthusiasm of the dancing and you are guranteed sheer entertainment with some smiles and even some tears. The closing scene was magical and heart rending, but I won't give that one away - see it for yourself...