Adaptor, director and actor Nick Skubij said bringing a complicated, multicharacter saga like Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights to the stage was a challenge.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"It has 40 years of drama and two generations of family experiencing the same things," he said.
"I was trying to distil the novel to its essence."
Tackling a well-known and well-loved classic like this one - a frequent inspiration for films, television productions operas and other adaptations - meant he could only take it on from his own perspective, he said.
He wanted to focus on the relationship of the mysterious gypsy Heathcliff (played by Ross Balbuziente) and Catherine (Gemma Willing), which he said had a lot of contemporary resonance. He said Wuthering Heights was not a book that meant a lot to him when he first read it as a teenager: "I wasn't a romantic."
He had also been led to believe it was a soppy love story. But returning to it years later after some life experience he found his feelings towards it had changed.
"There are so many modern elements - hate, love, jealousy, anger, fear. Love can comfort but it can also tear you apart."
And, he said, the destructive aspects of their relationship affected not only them but the people around them, into the next generation.
"We have a cast of six actors who play 13 or 14 characters," he said.
But the environment in which the story unfolded was also crucial and sound, light, projections and other effects were employed to create the settings and atmosphere - including wind, fire and rain.
Skubij was a co-founder of Queensland theatre company shake & stir, which was established in 2006. Wuthering Heights is the first production it has brought to the Canberra Theatre Centre but it has toured to the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre with its production of Statespeare and adaptations of George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984. The production premiered in 2014 with a mostly different cast; Skubij stepped in as actor for the national tour, which began in Canberra on Wednesday night.
Another shake & stir co-founder was Nelle Lee, who plays three roles in the production including Heathcliff's eventual wife, Isabella, and is a holdover from the original cast. "When I read Wuthering Heights in high school I loved it," she said. She loved the passionate romance of Heathcliff and Catherine.
"It's brutal - he loves her so much, it's all-consuming ... imagine being loved that much."
Both Skubij and Lee were in another shake & stir production, Dracula, they hope to bring to Canberra next year.
Wuthering Heights is on at The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre until Saturday, March 12. Bookings and more information: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
