Wind-swept Haworth Moor will be replaced by the scorched desert landscape of Rajasthan in a Bollywood makeover of Emily Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights.
Acclaimed writer Deepak Verma, who played Sanjay in EastEnders, has put the finishing touches to a stage musical based on the novel, which moves the tale of jealously, passion and rage from Yorkshire to rural India.
It will be set to Bollywood music but will broadly follow the plot of the original, written at the Parsonage in Haworth, now the Bronte Parsonage Museum, in 1847.
The play swaps Victorian snobbery for India’s strict caste system, with the brooding figure of Heathcliff replaced by Krishan, a street urchin who is adopted by a kindly merchant, Singh.
Instead of Heathcliff falling in love with Catherine, Krishan’s passions lie with Singh’s beautiful and headstrong daughter, Shakuntala.
A spokesman for Tamasha, the theatre company behind the new production, said Wuthering Heights would have the dark and brooding atmosphere of the original, with the feel-good elements of Bollywood.
Playwright Sudha Bhuchar, who set up Tamasha in 1989 with Kristine Landon-Smith, said: “The traditional Bollywood audience won’t be disappointed. They will get all the ingredients of a good Bollywood film – tension and romance, and, of course the songs and dancing.
“But it is such an iconic love story that we hope people who do not know Bollywood will see it as a story that transcends location.”
Bronte Parsonage Museum director Andrew McCarthy has given his blessing to the new musical.
“I am delighted about it,” he said. “One of the things we have been trying to do in recent years is to break down this image of the parsonage as a white, middle-class tourist attraction.
“We are in Bradford district which is obviously a tremendously multi-cultural area and we want to appeal to as many people from different cultures as we can.
“Wuthering Heights is, in one respect quintessentially Yorkshire, but in another way it is not at all. When you read the book, there is very little description of the landscape – that interpretation comes through films later on.
“It is a story which can be adapted to any historical period and any geographical or cultural setting.”
The company, which staged the original version of East Is East, is currently casting for Wuthering Heights, which goes on tour next spring.
The tour starts in Oldham in March and the nearest show to Bradford is at the Harrogate Theatre, from Tuesday, June 16, to Saturday, June 20. To book tickets visit the website at harrogatetheatre.co.uk or call (01423) 502116.
e-mail: marc.meneaud@telegraphandargus.co.uk
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