Romeo & Juliet (RSC, tour)

It seems to be the fashion these days to take Shakespeare’s settings literally. I’ve seen rather a lot of Italianate productions in the past couple of years, it makes me wonder what’s next – an Othello surrounded by water?

Neil Bartlett’s production strongly emphasises the feud between the Montagues and Capulets, to the extent of lining the two families on each side of the stage, with a strolling Italian street band punctuating the action; we could be in the middle of a Sicilian feud. This position is emphasised by Montague and Capulet themselves joining in the knife fight at the start of the play.

However, rather than Mediterranean sunshine, designer Kandis Cook has given us a set comprised of monochrome monoliths, meaning that most of the action takes place in almost Scandinavian gloom. The whole effect is somewhat strange, looking something like The Godfather as imagined by Ingmar Bergman. It’s also odd that there’s no room for a balcony, so Romeo’s late night encounter with Juliet appears to take place in her bedroom, rather losing some of the effect.

What’s make it even stranger is that the young men of the play all appear to have arrived from the Bullingdon Club and, rather than being hot-headed Italian youths, are more like aristocratic bluebloods poking fun at the oiks. This does work well – notably in the baiting of the nurse when she comes looking for Romeo – but it seems at odds with the rest of the setting.

I do like the central performances. David Dawson’s foppish-looking Romeo might look like a refugee from Brideshead Revisited, but he captures well the impetuousness of a youth falling in love so completely, coupled with a real feel for the words. And Anneika Rose’s Juliet is equally as good as a young woman coming to terms with both her own sexual desire and her sexual desirability; there’s also a real tone of rage, the authentic voice of a teenager. I’m not sure that Juliet would fall so hard for someone quite so delicate in such a testosterone-charged world, but Rose manages to convince us of her passion.

I also like Gyuri Sarossy’s over-bearing Mercutio, Julie Legrand’s down-to-earth Nurse and Vinta Morgan’s dignified Prince.

This is pretty much the full version of Romeo and Juliet, including the chorus scene before Romeo’s incursion into the Capulets’ house. Bartlett paces the action well right up to the moving conclusion – where the stygian setting really does enhance the final scene.

– Maxwell Cooter