ROMEO AND JULIET. To 3 April.
Hornchurch
ROMEO & JULIET
by William Shakespeare
Queen's Theatre To 3 April 2004
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 31 March 2.30pm
Audio-described 31 March 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 01708 443333
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 March
Comedy comes through more strongly than tragedy.Parties, marriages, lustful enjoyment of street-fighting, a youth-based orientation - Bob Carlton's production does well by the lust-for-life side of this play, despite the Mussolini-like uniform Verona's Prince sports, and the tragic strains of Verdi's La Traviata Prelude which permeate the action from offstage actors on strings. There's Madama Butterfly's Humming Chorus too, duly hummed and later turned into a doleful minor key.
The opening scuffle has a threatening deliberation, led by suited, behatted people who take advice on the law from gun-toting sidekicks. Walking canes are revealed as sword-sticks (later, Tybalt drags the sheath off a swordstick pointed his way in peace). And when it comes, Malcolm Ranson provides a magnificent fight sequence, Mercutio insistent on battle, Tybalt outsmarted by his witty opponent until Romeo's intervention gives his pugnacity its opening.
Yet, with Dinah England's set a mansion frontage with neat foliage either side, lit brightly or with romantic moonlight by Chris Jaeger - this is a place where violence is incorporated within daily life. Carol Sloman's sole representative of the Montague parents is an elegantly assured part of the social fabric. Richard Dax's Capulet is more effortful, new money waving its lira signs, doing things the way they can now be afforded. Emily Gardener's bleached Lady Capulet tries for the smart act Mrs Montague effortlessly achieves.
There have been productions with more elegant, flexible verse-speaking, but for the first half Carlton's cast bring clarity and humour Richard Emerson as Capulet's illiterate servant automatically spitting at the name Montague, Matt Devitt's drag-act Nurse. This works well for comical moments, with detached observation of female moves and expressions, a pinch or slap giving her a pleasant thrill - less so in tragic scenes. Which is where the production falters overall.
Ifan Meredith's Romeo remains subdued throughout, unlike Maria Lawson's Juliet. Her voice has limited tonal range but she captures youthful impetuosity, full of teenage seriousness (they will murder thee' she warns Romeo with realistic intensity), impatiently plucking at her Nurse's sleeve for hard news of her lover. And a strong sense of fast-growing maturity as, later, she wrestles with unfamiliar dilemmas.
Balthazar/Paris: Philip Reed
Tybalt/Watch: Nick Lashbrook
Abraham/Nurse: Matt Devitt
Peter/Friar John: Richard Emerson
Prince Escalus: James Waverley
Lady Capulet: Emily Gardner
Capulet: Richard Dax
Lady Montague: Carol Sloman
Benvolio: Ben Hicks
Romeo: Ifan Meredith
Juliet: Maria Lawson
Mercutio/Apothecary: Jonathan Markwood
Friar Laurence: James Earl Adair
Director: Bob Carlton
Designer: Dinah England
Lighting: Chris Jaeger
Sound: Whizz
Musical Director: Carol Sloman
Fight director: Malcolm Ranson
2004-04-02 07:44:25