Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...The actors, including Katy Ellis, who has recently taken over the role of Catherine, Lloyd Gorman who plays Mr. Earnshaw, and the droll TJ Holmes, who played Dr. Holmes Friday night, are generally excellent: Eleanor Sutton,who plays Catherine Linton, rises even above that. I found Liam Tamne, the brooding fellow who essays Heathcliff, less than accessible at times, which might sound true to type but is not entirely true in this production. Most in the cast, also enhanced greatly by Tama Phethean, play several roles and they do so with great skill and commitment; Ellis got better and better as the night went on and her character sunk further and further into the mist."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...Little of that is apparent in the Wise Children theater company's nearly three-hour staging of "Wuthering Heights" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.Adapted and directed by Wise Children artistic director Emma Rice, "Wuthering Heights" swings without structure or seeming intent between camp worthy of a '70s sitcom and attempts at straight-for-the-gut straight drama. Neither worksvery well."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...There is a void at the heart of this pitiless tale, and the production, despite skillful use of whimsical puppets and clever props, leans into the nihilism, harshness, and brutality of the story right until the glimpse of hope at the end. But Rice’s staging also leavens the proceedings with moments of absurdist grim humor. (Whenever TJ Holmes’s harried doctor shows up, you know there’s going to be another name on a chalkboard. Which, come to think of it, isn’t so much absurd as it is realist, given the tubercular times.)"
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...This, as is practically any of the World Stage offerings, is an important must see piece both for its content and its execution, but also for its place as a cultural artifact. The novel is considered one of the most important works in English literature, and the world in which it was birthed was so anti-woman that its author had to use a man's name to get it out. The shadow side of Western Culture is as dark as it was when this story was written, though now the cost of our prejudices is as much nightly news as it is the stuff of our literature. Perhaps sitting together in a theater and witnessing can begin the conversation of healing and we can be better for the next generation."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Recommended
"...I struggled with rating this play, deciding that the generational gap of individuals coming to see this play would determine the diverse reactions audiences would take home after seeing this version of Bronte's Wuthering Heights. For my age group, you may have to give this version of Emma Rice's production a fresh look; however, speaking as one of the Baby Boomers who loved the 1939 film version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon-this Wuthering Heights didn't do it for me."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier is NOT only for plays by William Shakespeare, although many think so. They have gone off course of late and are trying to attract younger theater-goers as well as those who cannot handle (or tolerate) the English that The Bard used as "his language" ( based on how my spouse says it). They have done modern versions of the classic adding Beatles music and with their Yard at CST, where they premiered that amazing "Six", they have done things that of a unique flavor."
The Fourth Walsh - Recommended
"...Lots to love in this Bronte-palooza… emphasis on ‘lots.’ WUTHERING HEIGHTS lives up to its name. It’s a blustery, vast tale! The running time, including intermission, is about three hours. Although musicals have similar running times, there are no big musical numbers in this show to energize the audience. At the beginning of Act 2, the ensemble makes a joke of it. They mention the show is all about ‘sitting in the hate.’ That kind of sitting isn’t for everyone and I did see empty chairs after the intermission. Still, I enjoyed the creative storytelling of Rice, the talented ensemble and inventive production team."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre - Somewhat Recommended
"...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."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Staged in The Yard, Chicago Shakes' adaptable and cavernous second theater space, Rice's Wuthering Heights peels back the complicated trappings of its era, Northern England in the mid-1800s, and instead presents a production where several actors duplicate supporting roles, all the show's props and set pieces are visible in the wings, and costumes and effects are simple yet eye-catching (Vicki Mortimer designed both costumes and sets). Together, it all evokes the weather-worn, wind-swept harshness of the story's setting, the moors that surround the estate known as Wuthering Heights and the nearby Thrushcross Grave. A small (but talented) band takes up residency upstage to complete the setting and contributes stirring music that serves as part film score and part Greek Chorus (but more on that later)."
Picture This Post - Highly Recommended
"...The sheer variety of personalities onstage is as chaotically musical as the natural forces they inhabit. Edgar (Sam Archer) and Isabella Linton (Georgia Bruce) are a posh, pinky-up at teatime, couple, who bicker pathetically, though cutely, about holding their fluff-ball dog, played by a literal white fluff-ball. Little Linton (Georgia Bruce) takes this fluffy effeteness to new heights, lifting a pillow as though it were a Stonehenge pillar. The illiterate Hareton Earnshaw (Tama Phethean) looks like a boxer giant and surprises us with gentleness when he gives his beloved a flower from the fields. Like this writer, you too may find this variety an invigorating rejection of minimalism."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...The story is a labyrinth of Catherines and Lintons, but the plot is fairly simple. Mr. Earnshaw adopts young abandoned Heathcliff and brings him into his family with his daughter Catherine and son Hindley. Earnshaw eventually dies, Hindley kicks Heathcliff out of their family home Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Catherine fall in love, and Catherine spends some time with their neighbors, The Lintons. Without spoiling anything, that will get you through the dense start of the show. A half-hour could easily be cut from the runtime, particularly from the slog of the ninety-minute first act, though, to be fair, the source material is dense too."
