Sam Archer as Mr. Lockwood in Wuthering Heights.
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- McCarter Theatre is thrilled to host the internationally-acclaimed UK production of Wuthering Heights by groundbreaking theatre-maker Emma Rice and her celebrated theatre company Wise Children. Live music, dance, puppetry, and a dash of impish irreverence combine in an intoxicating revenge tragedy for our time. This exclusive New Jersey engagement and the production’s final stop on its US tour, will be on stage in McCarter’s Matthews Theatre starting February 23 through March 12.
On the wild moors of Yorkshire, an orphaned Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights, where he finds a kindred spirit in Catherine. As they grow up together, a fierce love ignites between them—and when forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed in an epic story of passion, revenge, and redemption.
“I’m so thrilled to have the work of Emma Rice on our stage,” said McCarter Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen. “With Wuthering Heights, Rice is at the top of her power as a theater maker, taking hundreds of pages of description and transforming them into a live event. She puts the feeling of that great novel on stage. She and her team are so smart in how music, lighting, costumes, and movement play into the mood and melodrama. It leans into theatricality to bring the tragedy and gothic tale of obsessive love to an audience in a thrilling, raw, emotional way.”
(l to r) Liam Tamne and Leah Brotherhead–Wuthering Heights. Photo by Muriel Steinke
Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights is A National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal co-production, produced in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The production is represented in the US by Pemberley Productions.
Tickets start at $25 and are now on sale at McCarter.org or can be purchased by calling the Patron Services Office at 609-258-2787.
EMMA RICE, Adapter & Director. Emma Rice is the proud Artistic Director of her company, Wise Children, and an internationally respected theatre-maker and director. For Wise Children, Emma has adapted and directed the productions, Bagdad Cafe, Romantics Anonymous, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Angela Carter’s Wise Children. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe: Romantics Anonymous, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales). As joint Artistic Director of Kneehigh: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan & Yseult, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, The Wooden Frock, The Bacchae, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre); Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions); Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic); Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages); and Steptoe and Son. Emma received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards, and in 2022 was named in the Sky Arts Top 50 most influential British Artists of the last 50 years.
Jordan Laviniere-Wuthering Heights. Photo by Mauriele Steinke
IAN ROSS, Composer. Ian is a Bristol based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and Head of Music for The School for Wise Children. He leads the band Eleven Magpies and is part of Benji Bowers Orchestra Collective, Terra Coda. Credits as Composer include Wise Children, Malory Towers, Bagdad Cafe and Wuthering Heights (Wise Children); Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (Kneehigh). Other theatre for Kneehigh includes: Brief Encounter, The Red Shoes, Don John, The Wild Bride, Tristan & Yseult, Dead Dog in a Suitcase, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk. Theatre as music director includes: Girl from the North Country (Toronto 2019, Runway), Research & development with PJ Harvey (The National). Composer for film includes Weekend Retreat (O-region); The princess and Peppernose (Joe Wright and RSA).
(center) Liam Tamne as Heathcliff surrounded by The Moors in Wuthering Heights
THE CREATIVE TEAM INCLUDES: Composer, Ian Ross; Set & Costume Designer, Vicki Mortimer; Sound & Video Designer, Simon Baker; Lighting Designer, Jai Morjaria; Movement Director and Choreographer, Etta Murfitt; Puppetry Director, John Leader; Fight Director, Kev McCurdy; Music Director, Pat Moran; Associate Director, Laura Keefe; Associate Choreographer, Nandi Bhebhe; Lighting Programmer & Associate, Victoria Brennan; Costume Supervisor, Anna Lewis; Wigs, Hair & Makeup Supervisor, Giuseppe Cannas; Props Supervisors, Lizzie Frankl & Fahmida Bakht For Propworks; Music Supervisor, Tom Knowles; Casting, Alastair Coomer Cdg, Sam Jones Cdg, Jacob Sparrow and Wise Children; Producer, Poppy Keeling; US Tour General Manager, Doreen Sayegh For Pemberley Productions and Annie Shea Graney, Associate.
(center) Leah Brotherhead as Catherine surrounded by The Moors at Wuthering Heights. Photo by Mauriel Steinke-2
THE CAST for Wuthering Heights is: Sam Archer (Lockwood/Edgar Linton/The Moors); Georgia Bruce (Isabella Linton/Little Linton/The Moors); Ricardo Castro (Heathcliff); Katy Ellis (Zillah/The Moors); Stephanie Elstob (The Moors); Lloyd Gorman (Mr. Earnshaw / Robert/The Moors); Stephanie Hockley (Frances Earnshaw/Young Cathy/The Moors); TJ Holmes (Dr. Kenneth/ The Moors); Jordan Laviniere (The Leader of The Yorkshire Moors); Tama Phethean (Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw/The Moors); Eleanor Sutton (Catherine.) THE BAND is: Sid Goldsmith, Pat Moran (Music Director), Vincent De Jesus with Lloyd Gorman, TJ Holmes.
Created and led by Emma Rice, Wise Children launched in April 2018 and is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organization. Based in the South West of England, they make ground-breaking work with exceptional artists, and tour across the world. In the dark days of 2020, they led the field in live streaming, becoming the first company to broadcast a fully staged production, without social distancing, from a UK theatre after lockdown.
An independent not-for-profit performing arts center located between New York City and Philadelphia – and on the campus of Princeton University – McCarter is a multi-disciplinary creative and intellectual hub offering theater, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages that inspires conversations, connections and collaborations in our communities. We lead with our values of justice and joy, and we seek beauty in belonging. Celebrated for developing new work and winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, world premieres include Christopher Durang's Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Tony, Best Play), Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays, Emily Mann's Having Our Say. Renowned artists who have appeared at McCarter include: Alvin Ailey, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, David Sedaris, The Moth, Terence Blanchard, Roseanne Cash, the rock band Lake Street Dive, Shawn Colvin, more. McCarter connects with the community year-round via various community reading event opportunities, digital programming, on-site classes and in-school residencies. McCarter and Princeton University share a long history of unique partnerships and creative collaborations.
