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5 hours ago
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This telling of the age-old tragedy begins with modern-day fractiousness, as screens display images of Nigel Farage and Priti Patel. Divisions are evidently rife in this close-to-home version of Verona, but it is harder to distinguish how political schism applies to the two warring houses of Capulet and Montague – and the lovers caught in the crossfire.
Working in collaboration with local company That’s a Rap and a young cast, director Corey Campbell augments this production’s modern vision with song – mostly rap but also soul and R&B – alongside Shakespeare’s text. The iambic pentameter is in place but so are beats, spoken word and musical breakouts.
It is a high concept, designed to appeal to a younger audience perhaps, but the show starts off bumpily, with verse and song not quite joining up at the seams. The songs are prefaced with dialogue in modern-day parlance, which although full of fire, come across like scenes from another drama.
Other nifty touches lift it, some of them immersive. The programme is a newspaper delivering the latest news of feuding. An audience vote asks us who we think is to blame for the violence of act three, which results in the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio (my audience pointed the finger at the Montagues). Simon Kenny’s two-tiered set design makes evocative use of a choir on its upper deck.
But too many ideas jostle for air. Mobile screens are brought on to recap the story or flash up words in blockish print such as “VENGEANCE”. Some characters are dressed in uniforms that have indistinct period touches, adding to general muddiness around the concept.
Kyle Ndukuba makes his professional stage debut as Romeo and overspills with energy. Mia Khan’s Juliet is just as emphatic. Both race through their lines, as if in a rush to get them out. Other characters gesticulate extravagantly, but the amplification of their microphones flattens out any nuance.
Many early scenes feel overplayed, sometimes shouted, and the central romance is unconvincing. But there is a harnessing of energy and emotion after the interval and, from here on, the company delivers the darkness of the play with conviction and intensity. The peculiar screens are disposed of and the delivery of verse is better paced. Performances, both spoken and sung, are stronger too, the rap adding to the drama rather than distracting from it. Andre Antonio is especially compelling as Benvolio, delivering the final, incensed song over the bodies of the dead teenagers.
Suddenly, it gains traction as a story about generational clash, the young rebelling against elders voting for Farage, to turn neighbour against neighbour.
