Arts:Blog

Theatre Review: Romeo and Juliet ***

Anna Burnside reviews a production where ‘the idea is stronger than the execution’.

Around a building site, the wire mesh fence has become a shrine with flowers and cards. These supermarket memorials to violent deaths are familiar sights, and this unchanging set sits as a reminder that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy as well as a love story.

It’s a fitting setting for an urban take on the story, trimmed and focussed on the young protagonists. Inside the fence are scaffolding poles and platforms which become beds, shelters and, inevitably, a balcony.

Gordon Barr’s youthful cast bring freshness and energy to the language and brio to the visceral fight scenes. Bailey Newsome, doubling as Romeo’s wingman Mercutio and Juliet’s father Capulet, does much of the heavy lifting. His combination of Glaswegian gallus and Shakespearean poetry is both crowd-pleasing and effective.

Star Penders, playing Juliet’s cousin Benvolio as well as her nurse, shape shifts like a champ.

Then it becomes slightly lopsided. Benjamin Keachie is a sullen Tybalt then carries a lot of plot as the friar who tries to help the young lovers.

Sam Stopford is a low-key Romeo, lacking Mercuitio’s patter like watter. Lola Aluko’s Juliet is adorable, bouncy and believable, but there are no electric sparks between them. The brawls are more memorable than their tender moments.

A clangy electronic soundtrack (more Beats than Bard) is youthful but not always successful. Like Barr’s ambition for this production, the idea is stronger than the execution.

Romeo and Juliet performs at Bard in the Botanics until August 2, 2025. For further information (and weather updates), go to their website.

Photo by Eoin Carey.