Romeo & Juliet – Leicester Square Theatre, London

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director:Linnie Reedman

Reviewer: Elizabeth Vile

The Public Reviews Rating:

Ruby In The Dust strive to create productions that disturb, move and thrill an audience but never leave them indifferent. I feel that their inturprettation of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare achieved this goal.

The production is set in the late 1930′s during the facist regime and is peppered with historical references to this era. The story of Romeo and Juliet fitted in well with the religious divide in Italy during that time and the decision to make the Montagues Blackshirts and the Capulets a Jewish family also worked. The addition of live and recorded 1930′s music really captured the feel of the period and especially enhanced the party scene.

Such a tiny stage caused some problems with the staging, some actors were hidden behind posts, and the fact that the stage wasn’t raised caused some issues seeing parts of the stage. The actors coped amazingly well with the intimacy of the space and they all produced very strong performances. The tragic couple, played by Daniel Finn and Olivia Vinall captured the nievity and passion of the lovers well. This was contrasted by the sinister presence of Tybalt (Martin Dickinson) and Paris (Dan Moore). The decision to make the nurse (Imogen Vinden-North) a confident, good looking woman who had a secret relationship with Mercutio (Christos Lawton) brought a new twist to the play, especially during the scene when Mercutio taunts the Nurse.

I loved the originality of the staging and many of the choices made about the characters’ brought a freshness to the piece. Unfortunately not everything about the piece worked for me. The removal of some key characters and the pretty brutal cutting of the text did leave me feeling a bit confused at points as the story line wasn’t as clear as it could be. At one point I was left wondering how Paris worked out that Romeo killed Tybalt without anyone telling him. The water feature was used to good effect throughout the play but from where I was sitting it was very loud and was sometimes off putting. Fortunately the fountain was switched off for Act 2.

Overall this was a very enjoyable play, with strong performances from all involved. It is not for the purists amongst us but it is a highly imaginative inturpretation with a strong cast that will get you thinking about Shakespeare in a new way.