National Tour Partner

Artistic Director
David Nixon

Autumn 2009 Photo: HANSON

Wuthering Heights

Choreographer, Director &

Costumer Designer:
David Nixon
Composer:
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Set Designer
Ali Allen:
Lighting Designer:
David Grill
Orchestrator:
William David Brohn
Dramatic Associate:
Patricia Doyle
Additional Orchestration:
John Longstaff
Thank you to Charlotte Talbot for
her assistance in the restaging of
this revival of Wuthering Heights
Photo: Merlin Hendy
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 Wuthering Heights
The Story
Prologue ACT II
A storm on the moors. Haunted by thoughts of Cathy, It is Cathy and Edgar’s wedding day and an unexpected guest
Heathcliff rages through the night. The storm dies and a arrives. Heathcliff has returned – richly dressed and genteel. As
memory returns; Cathy and Heathcliff in their youth, a time of Cathy and Heathcliff are left alone, the rest of the world ceases
innocent and trusting love. to exist – they are back on the moors again. As Edgar returns
Cathy slips from Heathcliff’s grasp.

ACT I At Wuthering Heights, Hindley is drinking heavily and gambling

away huge sums of money. Heathcliff gives money to Hindley,
A memory takes form in the mists, the kitchen at Wuthering allowing him to fall deeper into debt. As Hindley becomes more
Heights where two children play. Cathy and Hindley wait for desperate he signs Heathcliff’s promissory note, losing not only
their father and rush to him in search of presents. They find the game, but Wuthering Heights as well.
nothing but a ragged child, hidden beneath his cloak. They
Isabella arrives at Wuthering Heights to return Heathcliff’s riding
both regard the new addition to the family – Cathy with
crop. The charm he displays grows more aggressive, but when
fascination, but Hindley with dismay.
Isabella hesitates Heathcliff tells her to leave. Rather than return
As they grow older Cathy and Heathcliff spend all of their time to the loneliness of her life at Thrushcross Grange, Isabella
together on the desolate moors; amid the untamed brutality submits to him.
of the landscape there is an elemental bond between them.
Cathy sits in the garden at Thrushcross Grange and sees
When his father dies, Hindley becomes master of Wuthering
Heathcliff and Isabella enter the grounds. She is jealous when
Heights and takes his revenge upon Heathcliff, delighting in
Heathcliff kisses Isabella and confronts him. Heathcliff angrily
his degradation and humiliation. It is only with Cathy, on the
accuses her of betraying their love, making it clear that he will
moors, that Heathcliff can find happiness.
not give up Isabella and means to have revenge.
On the moor they discover Thrushcross Grange, the Linton’s
Left alone, Cathy is drawn, irresistibly, back to the moors. In the
home and an oasis of tamed tranquillity in such a desolate
gathering storm she comes face-to-face with Heathcliff. The
landscape. A party is taking place and Heathcliff and Cathy
anger is gone, replaced by love. Discovered by Isabella, Cathy
make fun of Edgar and Isabella Linton. They are discovered,
races from the scene and Heathcliff turns the full violence of his
but as they run away Cathy trips. Edgar is enchanted and
rage on Isabella.
Heathcliff is forgotten.
The night spent on the moors leaves Cathy gravely ill. A grief-
Cathy convalesces at Thrushcross Grange. Edgar falls in love
stricken Edgar finally shows all the love and passion previously
with her and she is captivated by his refinement. Heathcliff
missing from his life. He leaves to get the doctor and Heathcliff
remains alone with only thoughts of Cathy and questions
climbs through a window.
her long absence. She leaves for home, sorrier to leave the
riches and luxury of Thrushcross Grange than she is to leave He gathers her up in his arms and they embrace one another
Edgar. On her return to Wuthering Heights she regards its fiercely. As Edgar returns Cathy collapses.
gloomy interior with dismay, but Heathcliff steps out and she
greets him, laughing. However, with Edgar at Cathy’s side,
Heathcliff cannot conceal his jealousy and after a struggle
with Hindley he runs from the house. Cathy tries to follow
him, but he has gone and she has chosen her destiny.

Photo: HANSON
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EPILOGUE
Heathcliff is back on the moor. An old man, he is desperate
to embrace death and be reunited with Cathy. He has lived a
lifetime without her. Finally his tired heart gives way and he falls
to his knees with his head to the heavens. As snow begins to
fall the youthful lovers return. The anger of the past is buried
as, liberated from anger and betrayal, they are reunited in their
innocence and love.

Photo: Merlin Hendy

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 Discovering
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights
In 1820 the Revd. Patrick Brontë was appointed Perpetual
Curate of Haworth and arrived in the village with his Cornish-
born wife, Maria, and their six small children: Maria, Elizabeth,
Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne. Although Haworth itself
was a bleak-looking industrial town in the Brontës’ time, the
landscape which most people associate with the Brontës, and
Emily in particular, is the haunting windswept moorland which
extends for mile after mile beyond Haworth Parsonage.
Mrs Brontë died within eighteen months of the family’s arrival
at Haworth, and her sister Elizabeth Branwell came from
Penzance to look after the family. In 1824, when Emily was only
five, she was sent with her older sisters to the Clergy Daughters’
School at Cowan Bridge. In the following spring, however, the
two eldest girls, Maria and Elizabeth, contracted tuberculosis
at school. They were sent home where they died within a few
weeks of each other. For the next few years the four surviving
children remained together at Haworth. Tabby Aykroyd, the
local woman who served the Brontës faithfully for many years,
would entertain the children with dark tales of the Yorkshire
moors on winter evenings around the warm kitchen fire. The
children developed a rich imaginary world, chronicled in tiny
books. In fact books of all kinds played an important role in the
Brontës’ lives and they were all profoundly influenced by the
works of Shakespeare, Scott and Byron.
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Despite her lack of formal education, Emily did obtain a post as
teacher at Miss Patchett’s School at Law Hill, Halifax, in 1838.
This was to be her first and last attempt at paid employment,
and by March 1839 Emily was back at Haworth. In 1842 Emily
and Charlotte spent a year studying in Brussels, returning home
due to their aunt’s death later in the year. Emily remained at the
Parsonage to act as housekeeper and continued to write both
prose and poetry.
In 1846 the sisters published an edition of their poems under
the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Only two copies of
the book were sold, but in October 1847 Charlotte’s Jane Eyre
appeared to instant acclaim. The London publisher, Thomas
Cautley Newby had already accepted Wuthering Heights and
Anne’s Agnes Grey, on terms which Charlotte described as
‘somewhat impoverishing to the two authors’. The two novels
appeared in December 1847. Many of the early critics of
Wuthering Heights were forced to acknowledge the novel’s
power while comparing it unfavourably with Jane Eyre.
Wuthering Heights was Emily Brontë’s only novel. It is believed
that she may have begun work on a second, which was
never completed. Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis on 19th
December 1848 at the age of 30.
A book like no other
Where to start? When I was 13, seeing the play on television,
starring, unbelievably, Richard Todd as Heathcliff (what I
wouldn’t give to see that again!) and the wonderful, passionate
actress Yvonne Mitchell, as Catherine. Like Catherine she too
died young. I had never read the book and the next Saturday
off I went to Woollies with my saved up pocket money to buy
a copy, price 3s 6d, about 17p in today’s money. Sadly I lost
this copy over the years, but never the first impression it left on
me. Of course I fell in love with Heathcliff and as I grew up went
looking for a Heathcliff of my own, long before we knew that
was a very silly thing to do which would only end in tears if you
found him.
As the years went by I discovered the other Brontë books;
went to the Parsonage and on to the moors many times; as
a young actress played Catherine in repertory, directed by my
husband; had a small role in one of the films (Timothy Dalton
as Heathcliff) and adapted and directed it as a play. It is the one
that goes with me to the Desert Island – never mind the Bible
and Shakespeare.
Then there is Laurence Olivier. But by the time I saw the film I
knew Heathcliff was some kind of devil, certainly not portrayed
in the Hollywood version. After all, Emily’s own sister Charlotte
felt compelled to write a disclaimer for the second edition of the
novel in 1850 as she felt on re-reading it that Heathcliff was too
much of a savage, his revenge too sadistic and that her sister
didn’t realise what she was writing. Well she did. She lived with
her adored brother Branwell, who disappointed all his family,
Photo: Merlin Hendy
including his Parson father, and turned into a drug-taking drunkard, falling
desperately and inconsolably in love so inappropriately with his employer’s
wife. Emily didn’t survive him long, unlike Heathcliff who longs to die when
his soul mate Catherine dies in childbirth. Emily knew all about drink,
betrayal and deep depression from her own brother. And that he took
drugs just under the Parsonage at the Black Bull public house. Charlotte
felt that Heathcliff was “unredeemed” but Emily forgave him and asks us
to as well. For somehow she gives us, in the full novel, the terrible revenge
that Heathcliff wreaks finally becoming resolved as he comes nearer and
nearer to Catherine and his own death, leaving the next generation to find
the happiness he can only share in the grave with his Catherine. Of course
both Catherine and Heathcliff behave dreadfully and selfishly but there is
something above and beyond them that impels them, that moves them
into another sphere, beyond human experience to something unearthly
and elemental. And it is on the moors that they are most at one, free and
unrestrained.
There is no other book like this one; it fits no simple genre. Its author read
Blackwood’s magazine and the Gothic romances of the time in particular
The Bridegroom of Barna, and poetry by Lord Byron, “mad, bad and
dangerous to know”, as indeed is Heathcliff. She certainly didn’t read
Jane Austen as Charlotte did. She was an astonishing original, this book
going beyond her own experience into worlds she could at the last only
invent. And when she died so early we lost an imagination unparalleled in
English literature.
Patricia Doyle - Dramatic Associate
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 Everlasting love
The music of Wuthering Heights
As a composer of musicals I know how to tell a story with After Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre it was a
music, singers and lyrics; I know what kind of mood a melody land of freedom, no borders imposed by the voices, ranges,
can deliver and how to write a song, but I never thought of change of keys, structure of the words.
writing a ballet – this was unknown territory for me. The idea
I’m not saying that it was any easier, just different. Not hiding
of turning Wuthering Heights into a ballet was initially developed
behind singers, I am more exposed as a composer so I also
with my friend Derek Deane and hearing of NBT’s reputation
had to improve my technique of writing. I was learning more
for successful narrative-led productions, I contacted the
about myself and was certainly not the same man by the time I
Company’s Artistic Director, David Nixon. I soon found myself
reached the last bar of the score.
deeply involved in the challenge of creating my first ballet score.
That first meeting with David Nixon was certainly a pleasure.
Where do you start? How do you capture the haunting beauty
What a joy for a composer to work with a choreographer who
of the Yorkshire Moors and the sheer force of the wind that
is mad about music; humming the melodies on and on and not
sweeps across them? This is where I began with my dear
just counting the steps. In fact after watching the first production
friend, orchestrator, William D.Brohn; not using any special
of the ballet many times during 2002-2003, David and I were
sound effects, just notes of music. From that point on, the
convinced that a sequence dedicated to Heathcliff was missing
music came very quickly, almost violently, the story flooding
in Act 1. So early in 2009 I had to return to the keyboard and
out. I completed the work in nine months, working eight hours
compose a new section called “Waiting”. Indeed a creator’s life
a day, in a peculiarly sunny winter in the south of France.
is only about “never being satisfied” and “never finishing!”
Inspiration was there, my fingers sometimes running on the
Now we hand over this work to you - it is yours. By joining us
keyboard much faster than my brain. It felt like the characters
here in the theatre today I believe that there are some sparkles
Heathcliff, Cathy, Edgar, Isabella, were talking to me. Images
of Heathcliff and Cathy in your soul - because everybody’s
from the movie versions of Sir Laurence Olivier or Juliette
dream is to find everlasting love.
Binoche ran through my mind, as I tried to be true to Emily
Brontë’s spirit. Claude-Michel Schönberg

Production Credits: Wuthering Heights

Original Production Manager: Tim Anger Ladies Costumes realised by: Julie Anderson
Revival Production Manager: Andy Waddington Assisted by: Sarah Anderson
Scenic Construction: Bryan Tweddle, Gary Fox, Heathcliff Characters by: Phil Reynolds
Jon Moorhouse and Peter Deacon Tailoring by: Barry Thewlis and Laura O’Connor
Scenic Décor: Ali Allen, Cathy Stewart, Dave Gillan, Millinery by: Jane Smith
Gill Lightfoot and Owen Moore Dyeing by: Chris Duffelen
CAD Draughtsman: Steve Wilkins Wigs and Makeup Supervisor: Gavin Render
Wardrobe Supervisor: Kim Brassley Assisted by: Georgina Gabbie
Assisted by: Beth Stocks, Laura O’Connor, Mikhaila Pye, Wigs made by: Marian Wilson
Heather Burtt and Carley Marsh Pointe Shoes by: Freed of London

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 Creative Team
DAVID NIXON
Choreographer, Director
and Costume Designer
See page 4
Claude-Michel SchÖnberg
Composer
Born in 1944 of Hungarian parents, Claude-Michel Schönberg began his
career as a singer, writer and producer of pop songs. In collaboration with
Alain Boublil he is the book co-writer and the composer of La Revolution
Francaise, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre and Pirate Queen.
In 2008 his new musical Marguerite in collaboration with Alain Boublil
and Michel Legrand opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London. He has
supervised overseas productions and co-produced several international cast
albums of his shows. In 2002 his first ballet score Wuthering Heights was
created for Northern Ballet Theatre.
William David Brohn
Orchestrator
With the orchestration of Claude-Michel Schönberg’s score for Wuthering
Heights, William David Brohn returns to Yorkshire to continue his long association
with the composer for whom he also orchestrated Miss Saigon and Martin
Guerre.
Brohn’s connection to dance music dates back to the 60s when he began as
conductor for the Robert Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Royal
Ballet’s tours of America during Sir Frederick Ashton’s tenure. When he took up
the pen as orchestrator in the ensuing decades, it was for such choreographers
as Agnes De Mille, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Anthony Dowell, and Sir Kenneth
MacMillan.
Besides being noted for his work at Stratford-upon-Avon, the West End, the
Royal National Theatre and New York’s Broadway, Brohn is recognised as an
arranger and composer for numerous artists including Placido Domingo, Marilyn
Horne and for Joshua Bell with Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite for Violin and
Orchestra on Sony Classical with the London Symphony Orchestra. He has
recently worked as Orchestrator for the West End Hits Mary Poppins and Oliver.
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Patricia Doyle
Dramatic Associate
Patricia has worked extensively with Northern Ballet Theatre, beginning as
a drama consultant and acting coach on Christopher Gable’s Dracula, also
working closely with him and Michael Pink on Giselle and The Hunchback
of Notre Dame. She then directed Northern Ballet Theatre’s Carmen and
A Streetcar Named Desire, both choreographed by Didy Veldman. Her
collaboration with David Nixon began on Wuthering Heights and Swan Lake
and continued with Patricia co-directing and creating the scenarios with
David for the Company’s new versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
Peter Pan. Patricia also co-wrote the scenario for David Nixon’s A Sleeping
Beauty Tale, which was performed as part of NBT’s Spring/Summer tour
in 2007. As well as co-directing Hamlet 2008 Patricia also prepared the
scenario alongside David Nixon. As well as her work as a professional
theatre director Patricia also teaches and lectures on British Theatre for
American Universities.
Born: Hertfordshire, England.
Trained: RADA
Previous Companies:
As an Actress: Patricia has worked in many of the major repertory
companies in Britain; at the Royal Court, the National Theatre and with
the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is a founding member of the GeVa
Theatre, Rochester, NY. Varied television, radio and film work.
As a Director: Work includes: Martine, Salisbury Playhouse; Time and the
Conways and Noises Off, Ohio, USA; Three Sisters, Great Expectations,
Wuthering Heights and Travesties, Manchester Metropolitan University
School of Theatre; Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood, Theatre,
Chipping Norton; Blue Remembered Hills, A Clergyman’s Daughter, and
Bloody Poetry with her own company Terra Firma. She has also worked with
Central School of Ballet, the National Youth Theatre and has been involved
in the training of students at major Drama Schools as well as working with
young offenders for the Prince’s Trust. Patricia also directs courses at the
Actors Centre in London and was Rehearsal Director for the children in the
Hollywood film Anna and the King starring Jodie Foster.
Personal Career Highlights:
As an Actress: The world tour of Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Amanda in Noel Coward’s Private
Lives, Emma in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Hester in Terence Rattigan’s The
Deep Blue Sea, Sheila in Peter Nichol’s A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Jo in
Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, Pinocchio and Hedda Gabler.
As a Director: Martine, Blue Remembered Hills, A Clergyman’s Daughter,
Wuthering Heights, Three Sisters, Time and the Conways, A Doll’s House,
Serious Money, Barnaby Rudge and productions with Northern Ballet
Theatre.
Personal: Was married to the director Donald MacKechnie with whom she
had a long and fulfilling artistic career. Has a son, Angus MacKechnie, who is
Producer of Platforms and Events at the National Theatre.
Ali Allen
Set Designer
Born: Somerset, England.
Trained/Educated: Studied Fine Art at Newcastle University.
Previous work: Ali’s work has extended over a wide variety of areas including
carnival, sculpture, pantomime, opera and outdoor theatre projects.
Previous work includes Madame Butterfly and Dracula for Northern Ballet
Theatre, Rumblefish, Bloodtide, Lord of the Flies, The Twits, Fungus the
Bogeyman for Pilot Theatre, Kes and Brassed off for Lawrence Batley
Theatre, Huddersfield, Bollywood Jane for Leicester Haymarket, Once Upon
a Quarry Hill for West Yorkshire Playhouse, Look back in Anger for Harrogate
Theatre, Where’s Vietnam? for Red Ladder’s 40th anniversary at West
Yorkshire Playhouse. Most recently she has been working with writer Trevor
Griffiths on a touring set for Camel station, and is currently designing The
Little Mermaid for Dundee Repertory theatre.
Highlights: Winning Best Float for Trinidad Carnival, and more recently
working with 30 people and Red Ladder Theatre Company on the show
Where’s Vietnam?
JOHN LONGSTAFF
Additional Orchestration
Born: Lancashire, England.
Education: Girton College, Cambridge; Guildhall School of Music
and Drama.
Companies/Organisations: Kiel Opera House, Germany (conductor and
rehearsal pianist); Northern Ballet Theatre (conductor and rehearsal pianist);
Sheffield Symphony Orchestra (artistic director); Leeds College of Music
(opera conductor).
Previous Work: Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Carmen,
Great Expectations, Madame Butterfly, I Got Rhythm, Beauty and the Beast,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Traviata, The Three Musketeers, The
Nutcracker, La Bayadère with Northern Ballet Theatre. Other ballet scores
and arrangements include Dorian, La Sylphide, Eugene Onegin, Hansel and
Gretel (chamber versions), The Coronation of Poppaea.
Career Highlights: Second Prizewinner, Leeds Conductors’ Competition;
arranging and producing the acclaimed CD of Great Expectations (Elgar);
editing Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus in the orchestration attributed to
Mozart, recently discovered in Halifax and televised on BBC 4; producing
the NBT CDs of Peter Pan and The Three Musketeers.
Personal: Enjoys playing the organ for Sunday services at St. Peter’s,
Harrogate.
David Grill
Lighting Designer
David has designed lighting for Theatre, Dance, Opera, Television,
Architectural Projects, and Industrials taking him from the Great Wall of
China to the Great Stage of Radio City Music Hall. Mr. Grill was nominated
for a Chicago Midwest Emmy Award for Milwaukee Ballet’s Romeo and
Juliet, a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for the
Opening Ceremonies of the Pan American Games Rio 2007 and received a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Direction for the Opening
Ceremony Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Dance credits include: Works for the Milwaukee Ballet, Atlanta Ballet,
Ballet Met, Houston Ballet, Ballet Austin, Ballet NY, Northern Ballet Theatre,
Cincinnati Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Dayton Ballet, ABT 2, Dances
Patrelle (Resident Designer), numerous Choreographers and the Purchase
College Conservatory of Dance. Mr. Grill also lit the National Tour of
Sweet Charity, Cinderellabration at the Walt Disney World® Resort Magic
Kingdom® Park, served as the Associate Lighting Designer for the Tony,
Dora and Oliver Award Winning Musical The Who’s Tommy, and provided
Lighting Direction for The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.
Television Credits include: The Last Comic Standing II – New York,
Paralympic Winter Games 2002 Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the
Republican National Convention 2008, Larry King Live, and The Women’s
Sports Awards. He has also provided Lighting Direction for CNN’s Atlanta
Studio, the National Memorial Day and July 4th. Concerts and the
Superbowl XXXII - XXXIII - XXXV – XL – XLI – XLII – XLIII Half-time Shows.
Architectural projects include the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Museum, Salt
Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park and the Florida Museum of Natural
History’s Hall of Florida Fossils. His extensive Corporate Theater credits
include Estée Lauder, Pfizer, Georgetown University, Avon, ITT, MassMutual,
Dow Jones, and Verizon. Mr. Grill has been featured in numerous
publications including Lighting Dimensions and TCI and is an Adjunct
Assistant Professor and Co-Chairman of the Design/Technology Department
at Purchase College, State University of New York.
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