DID your reviewer Alan Johns actually witness Wuthering Heights at the Nuffield Theatre?

This stuttering version of the Bronte masterpiece was a disaster, a shallow interpretation that made no attempt to capture the psychological depth of the original.

The complex character Heathcliff was reduced to a bullying brute and Cathy was seen simply as a screaming shrew.

Its young actors struggled throughout to make sense of the director’s demands, while the audience struggled to make sense of their diction, which was either mumbled or shouted.

The set, which featured a fireplace in the middle of a moor, was simply laughable.

And to think I travelled 40 miles to see this pathetic offering, which sadly undermined the reputation of the usually first-class Maskers Theatre Company.

No wonder that many audience members failed to return after the interval.

ALAN BARTLEY, Newbury.