Romeo and Juliet

Synopsis

The story of frustrated young (illegally young in modern terms) love and death and the vendetta between two families in a tight-knit Italian community. One of Shakespeare's most popular and enduring dramas it has also been re-done as film, ballet, musical (most notably "West Side Story") and ice spectacular!

Our Review:

29 August 2002

The fact that there's rather more passion than poetry in Indhu Rubasingham's fluid production of Shakespeare's tale of the star-crossed lovers should not deter even the most devoted of the Bard's admirers. Starting with a 'rumble' à la West Side Story, the panoramic sweep of a community at war with itself, and the increasing isolation of its passionate fledglings, is powerfully captured in this fast-moving re-telling. The feeling of foreboding is right there at the start.

Set in a multi-national, colourfully ethnic, 17th-century Istanbul, motivation is given to the Montague-Capulet feud by placing them on the opposite side of a religious divide. The Montagues are followers of the Islamic faith and the Capulets Christian. What could otherwise be seen as an over-artificial conceit is given resonance by the front pages of today's newspapers, although in this context the Muslim Romeo's rush to marriage in front of Friar Lawrence seems a little unlikely.

This h...

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