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BrumHour saw Romeo and Juliet at the invite of The RSC.
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
This production contains themes of suicide and features some physical violence.
Review: Northern Ballet Romeo And Juliet at The RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐A stunning production.
Directed by Christopher Gable music by Sergei Prokofiev Choreographed by Massimo Moricone
Romeo (Harris Beattie) finds himself smitten with Juliet (Saeka Shirai), but her well to do family has already betrothed her to Paris (Bruno Serraclara) and Juliet’s nurse (Dominique Larose) is doing everything she possibly can to contain the situation.
Seeing ballet on a Shakespeare stage is a total privilege in itself and it was wonderful to see ballet in the globally famous setting of Straford-Upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre with the work being so inspired by the town’s best known son.
Split into three clear sections with two intervals the production runs at just over two and a half hours and makes you really feel the drama of each blackout in the theatre at the end of each act.
I enjoyed this production a lot and I’ve been lucky enough to see other versions of this choreography with the music of Prokofiev blasting across the theatre. I’ve always felt watching ballet that dancers are like silent movie actors, conveying their character’s emotions and their dialogue through their movements, so in a space that relies on spoken word so often, it was a real change to listen to the music.
The audience loved George Liang as Tybalt and Dominique Larose as the nurse both total scene-stealing characters, but the carefully-footed performances of Saeka Shirai and Harris Beattie as Romeo and Juliet really drew me closer to the stage. Seeing these young dancers portraying iconic roles just enhances my understanding of Shakespeare rather than taking away from it.
People might not think either ballet or Shakespeare is for them but if you were to pick a first one as an adult, you couldn’t go far wrong by picking this production.
A stunning production, Northern Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet is at The RSC’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 28th September 2024. Book tickets here: rsc.org.uk/northern-ballet-romeo-and-juliet.
