RSC Romeo and Juliet - Live in Cinemas

Gang violence on the streets. Knife crime out of control. No, it's not inner city UK but Verona. And it's all here in Erica Whyman's contemporary and hugely multicultural production of Romeo and Juliet. Erica is deputy artistic director of the RSC and has made this familiar story into something brilliantly modern.

We really believe that Karen Fishwick's Juliet is only thirteen. The very epitome of a twenty first century teenager. Bally Gill as Romeo seems too old for her, but who can blame her for falling under his spell.

Ishia Bennison as the Nurse (above) steals all her scenes with her wicked humour. I thought I would be impressed with Charlotte Josephine's Mercutio, but her powerful portrayal became irritating in the end. I liked the stage design. It suffered some criticism for being so bare, but the cube (below) definitely worked for me as a modern reference to all the action.

The music was amazing, the rock band at the ball was perfect. When the sound dies away at the end of the dancing, the lingering note did remind me so much of a Dire Straits chord.

There were very few young people in the audience, but this is one production that should be seen in eveTry school in the country. It is completely relevant to the youth of today.

P.S.
I loved the Prologue spoken, not by a single narrator, but a chorus of all the actors alternating lines and ending with a cacophony of voices. Superb.

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-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought 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. 

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Copyright ©2005-2017 by PlayShakespeare.com.
Visit http://www.playshakespeare.com/license for deta