English National Ballet's Romeo and Juliet at Milton Keynes Theatre

It's so great that English National Ballet come to Milton Keynes every autumn. We missed last year's Le Corsaire so booked early (May) this year, although we were in the circle for the first time. But this worked out well as there was often so much going on that the higher view came into it's own. The choreography for this Romeo and Juliet had been created by Rudolf Nureyev and the company enthusiastically grabbed their opportunity. Especially James Streeter as a very aggressive Tybalt.

Courtesy of The Northamptonshire Telegraph, I include the following review and photograph.
"Juliet, played by Erina Takahashi, shone as the leading lady, gracefully floating across the stage as the new relationship blossoms before her world comes crashing down around her and she gives everything both physically and emotionally to show the pain when she is betrothed to Paris, the man she doesn’t love.
The part of Romeo, played by Isaac Hernandez, is equally intense and spine-tingling as he gives a powerful portrayal of the highs followed by the lows experienced by Juliet’s lover."

Their dancing at the end of the first act was something else.

I find I sometimes just listen to the wonderful orchestra playing the score by Sergei Prokofiev. Given the size of the orchestra and the ballet company, the tickets are excellent value. And then there are the costumes and lighting which are both fabulous.

I should not have been surprised right at the start when a cart drags the two dead bodies across the stage. This echoes the chorus in the Prologue to Shakespeare's tragedy. I cannot remember a play (and now the ballet) where we are told the ending at the very beginning:

Two households, both alike in dignity

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage—

The which, if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.