Review by Ross Brewster
Romeo and Juliet, a Shakespeare North and Graeae Theatre Company co-production in association with Theatre by the Lake
They are jobbing actors, 10 of them who have turned up for an audition. They don’t know the play. They are usually cast in minor roles.
But as the waiting time increases a script suddenly falls from the heavens, they grab it, it’s Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The actors decide to put on their own play there and then.
What they produce, as they share parts in their own version of casting, is more light-hearted than passionate.
It’s definitely the Bard, the like of which I have never seen before. Actually I rather like it.
It is a remarkable production. Minimalist, shortened, witty. A completely new take on an oft-played tragedy, the eternal love story that will inevitably end badly. We know that. One of the actors tells us in an aside.
The cast of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent actors is pretty unique for Shakespeare. It’s to their credit that I certainly forgot about disability and regarded them simply as actors playing out a drama with echoes of modern life, with its family feuds. They used to carry knives and stab people in Shakespeare’s day, too.
The most unusual aspect of this play is the doubling up of the principal characters. Two Romeos, two Juliets. Thank goodness their clothing made it easier to identify them. There was almost a choreography about the way one of the Romeos spoke in English and the other, in perfect harmony, in sign language.
Three large screens suspended over the stage eliminated any problems the audience might have had with Shakespeare’s words. I did find them distracting, often looking away from the action. But they were also helpful when following their dialogue.
It’s Shakespeare for everyone. A lively dash through a classic reflecting the universal appeal of the play, with a double helping of the famous star-crossed lovers to boot.
It’s a cast that works well together. However I was greatly impressed by Rheanon Lee on her professional stage debut. She ended up playing Juliet and her mother, Lady Capulet, and really made her mark in the production.
Reece Pantry also demonstrated a comic talent. “It’s all downhill from here,” he warned the audience after the interval.
This play had some brilliant creativity. It was a brisk dash through a production that maintained the basic principles of Romeo and Juliet, but had its funny moments and was full of surprises.
“Jesus, that was brutal,” we are told by an actor after the scene in which Tybalt is stabbed to death. I don’t remember the Bard including that line in his original script.
At the end of their play the group of actors agree the whole lot of them ought to be cast. Another script falls from above. And then it’s off to the pub to read through Cymbeline, not one of Shakespeare’s easiest plays. Good luck to them with that.
Romeo and Juliet is at the Theatre by the Lake until Saturday, October 26. A chance to brush up on your Shakespeare with a few extra wrinkles the great man never thought of.
