Review: Wuthering Heights is a dark delight on Northampton stage

Passion. Violence. Revenge. These are the evocative traits associated with Emily Bronte's literary classic Wuthering Heights. Humour? Less so.

And yet the raw, unflinching stage adaptation, brought to Royal & Derngate by theatre company Inspector Sands, rains down a torrent of deliciously dark comedy which is wildly entertaining.

Rather than wallow in the bleak Yorkshire setting, writer and director Ben Lewis and Lucinka Eisler have somehow managed to create an adaptation which is hysterically funny whilst sensitively tackling tumultuous themes of emotional hysteria.

Framed by unreliable narrator Nelly (Guilia Innocent), maid to the Wuthering Heights household, the plot chooses to focus on dysfunctional family relationships, class and racism, rather than hone in on the love story of Catherine and Heathcliff.

Whilst this may not be the Wuthering Heights I remember studying at university, it captures the intensity, melodrama and heartbreaking destruction of the 19th century classic.

The wind howls, the lights flicker and the horror of the Earnshaw and Linton households unfolds at a rapid pace, in large part due to the gripping performance by Innocent. Meanwhile her surrounding cast play multiple roles with John Askew particularly mesmerising as Hindley/Hareton.

Slightly less rewarding is the central relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff whose passion seems to simmer rather than boil, whilst the loud voiceovers seem a little surplus to requirement given the narrative role of Nelly.

And whilst Ike Bennett's Heathcliff is a confused array of corrupted innocence and heartbroken vengeance, it is not underpinned by quite enough menace.

But these minor quibbles are barely noticeable as the production swings from one morose disturbance to another whilst punching a gut-load of laughs.

Unpredictable, chaotic and filled with an explosion of f-bombs this spirited production is a dark delight from start to finish.

Wuthering Heights runs at the at the Royal & Derngate until May 6. Performances take place at 7.30pm each evening, with a matinee at 2.30pm on Wednesday May 3. The production is recommended for ages 14 and above. Tickets cost from £15 before fees. Visit royalandderngate.co.uk or call 01604 624811 to book or for more information.