Bern:Ballett at the Royal Opera House - May 2009

Swiss-based ballet star Cathy Marston followed in a rich tradition of artists inspired by Emily Brontë’s 1847 classic Wuthering Heights in a new show by the Bern:Ballett at the Royal Opera House.

Marston offered not a straight adaptation of the haunting text, but a personal response inspired by its central characters, Catherine and Heathcliff. She chose to reflect only on the first half of the novel and also to reduce the characters to five: Catherine, her jealous brother Hindley, her step-brother and soul-mate Heathcliff, her devoted husband Edgar and his delusional sister Isabella.

The story revolves around Catherine’s selfish desire to have Hindley, Heathcliff and Edgar remain always faithful and present – satisfying her every whim. Unable to achieve this harmony she breaks down into a suicidal demise, but Heathcliff lives on, embittered by his torturous memories.

In the novel Catherine proclaims: ‘I am Heathcliff’, and after Catherine’s death Heathcliff cries: ‘I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!’ Marston said she was fascinated by this extraordinary unity; where the deeply connected internal worlds of Catherine and Heathcliff are eternally haunted by their own and each other’s private demons.

The score by Dave Maric was specially commissioned by The Cathy Marston Project (UK).

"All praise to Tattersall for her intensity, but, frankly, after Cathy's fourth or fifth tortured duet with the moody hunk she apparently doesn't want but can't keep her hands off, I was itching to give the girl a hard slap."  (Sunday Independent)

"Marston's great strength is her ability to depict nuanced emotional states, particularly those of women. Her Cathy is the excellent Jenny Tattersall, whose airy jumps and unbound femininity perfectly capture Emily Brontë's artlessly spoilt heroine."  (The Observer)