Early this week I phoned Linden Wilkinson who plays Nellie (narrator and servant) in the upcoming Shake & Stir and QPAC production of ‘Wuthering Heights’, soon to tour Tasmania. With such a unique first name my opening question to Linden is its origin.
Linden tells me her mum and dad provided different reasons for her naming. Her Mum says Linden was named after a visiting English actress while her father maintained she was either named after ‘a block of flats’ or an elm tree with ‘a fragrant blossom in summer’. Linden is happy with any interpretation of her unusual name but it seems somewhat appropriate that she be named after an actress who like the fairies, who visited Sleeping Beauty in the fairy tale may have bestowed upon her the gift of the desire to act.
Linden has been to Tassie in the past, once acting in a production of ‘Arms and the Man’ for the South Australian Theatre Company as well as working with and visiting the homes of two of our famous Tassie actors in Robert Grubb and Michael Sibbery .
Linden has also been to Tassie for one of the wooden boats festival and spent some time in Cygnet and Strahan, she is however keen to visit a place she hasn’t been before, Launceston. That opportunity will happen this visit.
A visit to the Theatre Royal for this performance Linden thinks is quite appropriate considering the haunting nature of the production to a theatre that is renowned for its resident ghost!
The NIDA trained actor who is highly educated, including possessing an economics degree tells me although she enjoys performing in all manifestations of acting, theatre is her first love.
Of this new production of Wuthering Heights Linden explains the director has modernised the language deliberately to ‘intensify’ and give the drama ‘shock’ value.
The modernisation will also encourage a younger audience to engage with the classic story. Already the play is gaining enthusiastic crowds who Linden says ‘laugh in the right places’ to decrease the tension in this story of the violent strength of that one great love.
You can see Wuthering Heights in Tasmania:
4 – 7 May Theatre Royal Hobart
10 May Theatre North at the Princess, Launceston
Paula Xiberras
