ROMEO AND JULIET:Shakespeare, Touring till 3rd Sept

Tour

ROMEO AND JULIET:
by William Shakespeare

British Shakespeare Company Toiur to 3 September 20056
www.britishshakespearecompany.co.uk
Runs: 2h 30m One interval
Review: Alan Geary: 15 July 2006 in Nottingham

An excellent package; it succeeds largely because it allows the play to speak for itself.
Round every street corner this summer you’ll find a production of Romeo and Juliet on offer. That being so, there has to be a special reason to go to see any one in particular. With this solid and gimmick-free interpretation director Robert J Williamson gives a whole clutch of reasons.

It’s mainly down to the acting, which, not only in the main roles, is always better than your average and often superb. There’s inventive use of the built-for-outdoors up-and-down set, some nice fight work and convincing Elizabethan togs - which, admittedly, these days almost counts as a gimmick.

Williamson doesn’t throw the ball scene away, as some directors do. He has the lovers (Sean B Brosnan and Liana Weafer) making clear their mutual attraction against the background of a beautiful song done a cappella by Natasha Kemball.

In a way it’s a loss, but Brosnan and Weafer don’t come over as teenagers, as the text tells us they should. Weafer gives an excellent performance nonetheless; her speech at the end makes you want to see her in arguably greater, more mature roles like, say, Lady Macbeth.

In Romeo’s scenes with Friar Laurence it isn’t so much callow youth being guided by older man as two men in mature, sometimes bitter, confrontation.

Christopher Robert’s Friar is masterly; there’s a measured authority and humanity about his performance, which makes his stricken flight at the end especially poignant. He speaks the text beautifully.

In fact, quality of line-delivery, for instance by Maxine Gregory and David Davies playing the Capulets, is a feature of this production. Being early Shakespeare, there’s a lot of rhyme; this and the rest of the great poetry are always done magnificently.

Humour comes not only from the Nurse (Mina Anwar with a tripe-and-onions accent), which is to be expected, but from Liam Gerrard as Peter the servant.

When you let this play speak for itself it usually works; it certainly does here.

Tybalt: Luciano Dodero
Benvolio: Robert Crumpton
Mercutio: Robert J Williamson
Capulet: David Davies
Lady Capulet: Maxine Gregory
Montague/Apothecary: Michael Gabe
Escalus: John Ioannou
Romeo: Sean B Brosnan
Paris: Matt Hebden
Peter: Liam Gerrard
Nurse: Mina Anwar
Juliet: Liana Weafer
Rosaline: Natasha Kemball
Friar Lawrence: Christopher Robert
Friar John: Craig Gilbert

Directors: Robert J Williamson/Pip Minnithorpe
Designer: Robert J Williamson/Nancy Surman
Original Music: Elisa Harris
Fight Director: Tim Klotz of YoungBlood/Kevin Rowntree
Costumes: Robert J Williamson

2006-07-25 13:14:43