Reviews

I have to confess I'd managed to avoid seeing or reading Romeo & Juliet in any shape or form up to this point in my life.  I came to this with no pre-conceptions other than knowing it has a balcony scene, it inspired West Side Story and that Dire Straits have a song of the same title.

Ellie Jones has directed this production for the New Wolsey's education department which aims to bring in schoolchildren with daytime as well as evening performances.  As hundreds of pupils filled the house on Thursday night my memory wandered back to my own experience of a school trip to see Macbeth at The Barbican in 1984 when several of my fellow pupils spent much of the time throwing sweets over the balcony.  I needn't have worried - the Suffolk contingent were very well-behaved and gave a rousing appreciation at the end.

The play was abridged to around 75 minutes and the pace was brisk but never too fast.  There were five cast members playing 11 roles.  At first it was a bit disconcerting as the actors wore one costume on the left of their bodies and another on the right.  It reminded me a bit of The Goodies' "Inbetweenies" and caused a few titters from the audience at first until we got our suspensions of disbelief in place.

Juliet and her nurse

Once you got used to who was playing who and when the audience seemed hooked.

Louise Collins as Juliet looked very alluring and played a love-struck 14 year old convincingly.  Serial-killer Romeo was Finnian Hanlon's first professional theatre appearance and at first I thought he was a bit wet, but then you have to remember that he's only supposed to be 17 years old and therefore it is pretty accurate protrayal of  puppy love.  While they used a Cranberries song and "Three Times A Lady" in the production, they never resorted to Donny Osmond - for which we must be thankful.

John Paul Connolly (as Capulet/Mercutio) and Michael Price (as Tybalt/Paris/Montague) brought a sense of the violence underpinning the Montague/Capulet rivalry - Price having to pull-off two deaths as both Paris and Tybalt.   Joanne Howath played the Friar and Juliet's nurse - and it was never difficult to distinguish between the two characters.

Romeo & Juliet

The set consisted of two staircases which were moved around to great effect (including the creation of the balcony scene of course).   The lighting gave a sense of balmy summer evenings in northern Italy while the problem of how to effectively use fake blood on stage was solved by pulling crimson scarves out of victims pockets.  This gave the scenes a very graceful quality, unlike Romeo's suicide collapse which seemed a bit cartoonish and again raised a few giggles from the audience.

As my first introduction to Romeo & Juliet I was presumably in the same boat as most of the schoolchildren in the audience.  With Shakespeare my hopes are always that I can a) follow it and b) enjoy it.  Using those criteria the New Wolsey's production was a triumph.  The youngsters certainly appreciated it and seemed to be having a "who can cheer and whistle the loudest" competition at the end!

For box office details and interviews with cast members visit the New Wolsey's website using the link on the right>>