Romeo and Juliet

The Wales Theatre Com­pany did thisat the Lyceum in Shef­field.  The Wales bit means that some of the minor parts had Welsh accents — it wasn’t like North­ern Broad­sides where every­body has to talk York­shire.  This was Romeo and Juliet out of West Side Story, rather than the other way round.  The cap­u­lets were a leather gang, the Montagues not.  The fight scenes were good– more like dances — and Mer­cu­tio abso­lutely baffled Tybalt by barely tak­ing the con­flict ser­i­ously.  Juliet is always a dif­fi­cult part — usu­ally a bit screechy — and this was a little. Over­all I enjoyed the edgy gang-culture feel — mummy Cap­u­let was a con­vin­cing moll — and the lads had the aim­less­ness of youth. Friar Laurence more power­ful than usual — a stronger fig­ure. The end­ing was bizarre — the whole explan­a­tion bit after the deaths in the tomb was omit­ted — which doesn’t really appor­tion any respons­ib­il­ity. A very strange decision.