Praised across Europe for their open-air adaptations of stage classics, Chapterhouse Theatre has been building a following across China after bringing The Jungle Book and Sherlock Holmes and the Hounds of Baskervilles on tours last year.
“As we organize these tours from our offices in Lincoln it feels quite surreal to think that the company has had some success in a country so far away,” admits Artistic Director Richard Main.
“I have been quite surprised at how warmly we have been received, only because it’s a new venture. As with any theater, you do something you love and you hope other people will love it too.”
The British group is looking to capitalize on the buzz with their tour of Wuthering Heights that stops off in Shanghai (Mar 24-27 and 30 @ Shanghai Grand Theatre), Guangzhou (Mar 31-Apr 1 @ Xinghai Concert Hall) and Shenzhen (Apr 2 @ Shenzhen Children's Palace). Emily Brontë’s lone novel remains regarded as a masterpiece in English literature and Main praises the 1847 book as a pioneering work.
“It is essentially the bridge between women writing books about things that they thought people wanted to read, and beginning to write as strong individuals with passions and desires that had been locked away and denied to them as women,” he says.
Written during the Victorian age, Wuthering Heights continues to resonate with its stark depiction of the era and the doomed romance between the rough orphan Heathcliff and Catherine, the daughter of the man that took him in.
Often compared to Romeo and Juliet for its tragic love story, Main agrees that Wuthering Heights depicts “a real love.”
“There is absolutely nothing superficial about it,” he adds. “It’s about a love that all of us aspire to, but very few actually achieve. It’s about the brutality of love.”
While Brontë tells the multi-generational story through several narrators, Chapterhouse Theatre will forego that approach and “tell the story directly through live action.”
“I really wanted to draw out the passionate relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff and tell the story through their eyes,” Main explains.
“Even though their story is only part of the overall plot of Wuthering Heights, here it is always at the forefront of the drama – playing on the characters’ minds and never allowing the audience to forget the dangerous dark passions that consume Catherine and Heathcliff.”
Chapterhouse veterans Emily Hurdiss and Matt Christmas will take on the main roles, while award-winning writer Laura Turner penned the stage adaptation. Past touring productions have impressed across Europe both for its gorgeous costuming and the use of open-air stages to recreate the story’s moors setting.
“I’ve been to Haworth where the Bronte sisters lived. If you stand near the church, which is beside the vicar ridge, you cannot help but have a feeling of strange impending Victorian-esque doom. Death haunted Victorian society and more so at Haworth, where the land and water was riddled with illness,” Main says.
However, he’s confident that Chapterhouse Theatre will be able to recreate that mood during its tour of theaters across China.
“Wuthering Heights works within our imagination with its windswept and barren moorland setting,” he says. “The gothic atmosphere that is created is an emotional one. What we take as being some form of Victorian horror is presented in the words the people speak and the way they treat each other.”
The Victorian age remains a strong muse for the company. Although they recently completed a tour of A Christmas Carol, which included a performance at the British Museum, Main promises Chapterhouse Theatre will return later this year with tours of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
Shanghai: Mar 24-27 and 30, 7.30pm (with 2pm matinee show on Sat-Sun), RMB50-380.
Shanghai Grand Theatre, see event listing.
Guangzhou: Mar 31-Apr 1, 7.30pm, RMB100-320. Xinghai Concert Hall.
Shenzhen: Apr 2, 8pm, RMB80-300. Shenzhen Children's Palace.
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