Although Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is typically regarded as a romantic novel, none of its characters is especially likeable and most of them do terrible things. According to Giulia Innocenti, co-director of Inspector Sands theatre company, this makes the story absolutely ripe for a darkly comedic makeover. And that’s exactly what her critically acclaimed ensemble has given it... 

The further time moves on from the wretched pandemic, the more I try to avoid bringing the subject up in conversation with actors and directors - it’s something we’re all fed up of talking about after all. 

But there are times when it’s inescapable... 

...No sooner have we made a pact not to bring up the ‘p’ word during our chat about Inspector Sands theatre company’s new production of Wuthering Heights, than actor Giulia Innocenti - who’s also co-director of the London-based ensemble - is telling me how Covid impacted their show.

“We were supposed to go into rehearsals on the 23rd of March 2020, and that was on the back of quite a long period of development,” she explains. “And then lockdown happened on the 23rd of March 2020 and everything was cancelled!”

The intervening period has been a challenging one for the 18-year-old company, with founders Giulia, Ben Lewis and Lucinka Eisler forced to twiddle their thumbs and wonder if they’d ever return to work. Aside from creating an audio play of one of their previous works, Wuthering Heights - written and adapted by Ben, directed by Lucinka and starring Giulia - is the only thing that’s been keeping them going. Giulia says the final version has changed dramatically as a result.

“What the show would’ve been pre-lockdown, had we carried on, is completely different to what it is now. It’s been a silver lining in a way, because I think it’s going to resonate even more now than it would have done before.”

Being forced to “live life in a petri dish” during lockdown will, she says, give audiences a greater appreciation of the isolated existence of the 18th-century rural community in which the story is set, a place where people “just see the same faces day after day”. That isolation also plays into Brexit Britain and “this country’s relationship to the outsider”, both of which were key inspirations for the project. 

“We normally write and devise our own work. This is the first time we’ve done an adaptation of a classic, and it came very much from Lucinka, who’s always loved the novel.”

Inspector Sands productions typically veer toward the tragi-comic, with a focus on how a bigger (social and political) picture gets built up by the tiny details of everyday human interaction. Which means the company will be focusing on rather more than the Heathcliff-Cathy love story at the heart of the novel.

“Although that’s crucial to the plot, for us it doesn’t feel like the absolute heart of the show we’re going to do. It’s more about the lack of love in this book. Reading it, I thought: My God, it’s brutal, it’s violent, it’s horrible… no one’s even likeable! 

“What’s kind of brilliant is that you also see all the destruction that people cause without really meaning to.

“The desire to make the show was also post-Brexit Britain and talking about the immigrant, the outsider, the terrorist in our society - who is that person? And who’s responsible for creating Heathcliff? Rather than demonising him, is he everybody’s responsibility?”

Among those potentially at fault is the book’s narrator, Ellen ‘Nelly’ Dean, the well-meaning housekeeper at Wuthering Heights, who witnesses the action, and occasionally contributes to it, through her engagements with the other characters. Giulia’s especially excited to be playing the role that ties much of the story together, as well as questions how trauma is handed down through the generations.

“What’s her responsibility in all of this? Does she recognise it, and does she have agency or not? She’s basically the audience, and there’s that sense of what is all our collective responsibility in bringing up these children?

“It’s that thing of what’s left over from the trauma of previous generations - how much does that play out in the following generations? How much do you carry with you, and how much can you escape from it all? 

“I also think trying to find hope at the end is really critical, so I think we’ll succeed if we manage to find that glimmer of hope.”

After four years away from the stage, Giulia admits she’s excited to be acting again, even though the company is aware of the pressure that comes with performing a classic which has a ready-made audience - whether that’s people who love the novel or students studying it for their A levels. 

“We did question whether we should even call it Wuthering Heights. There are so many shows that are based on classic texts - because that’s how you get the audiences in - but it’s really crucial for us that this isn’t Wuthering Heights the book; this is Wuthering Heights by Inspector Sands. It’s our interpretation of it, and that’s what will make it relevant to our audiences.”

Giulia is also at pains to point out that it’s very much a contemporary production, not a period drama - a fact backed up by the play’s advertising strapline: ‘contains violence, peril, social awkwardness, exhilarating music, high winds and mud’.

“It’s about now, it’s about today, and it should feel like that and resonate. I think the people who will be able to tell us whether we succeed or not are that younger generation, those A-level students - hopefully without their notebooks in hand and just feeling it and reacting to it.”

Giulia also knows that there’s a balance to be struck in giving fans and traditionalists a recognisable version of what they know, and creating something new and relevant in 2023. 

“It’s a hard one, isn’t it? We’ve never done this before, so we probably will upset some people, but maybe that’s a good thing!

“It’s a massive challenge, and we keep hearing that audiences have dropped in the regions, so there’s definitely a balance to be struck where you don’t want to frighten them away. You want to attract people but you also want to challenge them.”

Another important point is that Inspector Sands’ productions are typically full of humour, and Giulia says that this one will be no exception. 

“Wuthering Heights is not a funny novel, there’s not much humour in it, it’s pretty bleak, but we’ll tell that story with humour because otherwise we’ll kill ourselves! Someone said we turn anxiety into an art form, and I thought that was the perfect way to sum us up. You’re laughing, and then you realise, actually, that’s really awkward...”

by Steve Adams