Romeo and Juliet

This Bell Shakespeare production returns to the sexy, sumptuous garb of Shakespeare’s High Renaissance but, inexplicably, is set in an old theatre cluttered with scaffolding.

While we admire Anna Cordingley’s costumes, the metaphor of her no-where, theatre set - despite its different levels being inventively employed - is never explained in this remote, uneven production directed by Peter Evans. 

Even with actors often entering through the auditorium, early scenes are under-lit and under-projected to the back rows. Sparks do fly between the lads at play, and in the horror of their street fights and casual murders, but the language too is often left on the floor.

Alex Williams and Kelly Paterniti are well-matched, both diminutive and charming childish as the lovers, and Williams at least has an agility and vocal strength to help drive the play. Their balcony and bedside intimacies are endearing but we are unaffected when fate so cruelly destroys this perfection of youthful romance.  

Just as we should be howling, group scenes like the discovery of Juliet, when she’s presumed dead and when finally entombed, are rushed and cluttered.  Michelle Doake bustles nicely though the wit of the nurse; Hazem Shammas makes a muscular Friar and Justin Stewart Cotta and Angie Milliken are imposing if unsubtle as the red-adorned Capulets. 

There are many flashes of good drama and pacy segues, including on the streets between Jacob Warner, Damien Strouthes and Tom Stokes as respectively Benvolio, Mercutio and Tybalt, but the well-known story seems to grind to an empty end.

Martin Portus

Image: Alex Williams and Kelly Paterniti in Romeo and Juliet for Bell Shakespeare. Photo: Daniel Boud