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REVIEW | Romeo & Juliet, Greenwich Theatre - London
- Harry Brogan
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review. All views are our own.
Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, arrives at the Greenwich Theatre with what seems an intriguing concept: a gender swapped play with live musical interludes. Like many modern stagings, director James Haddrell trims off the text considerably leaving behind the essential narrative of two impulsive young lovers whose incredibly bad decisions coupled with poor advice from the adults around them, propels them towards a tragic ending.
The cast of six actors plays a multitude of roles throughout the evening. Blossom Timothy plays a gender swapped Romeo, though it doesn’t seem the text has been explored enough to find a way to make this retelling explicitly queer apart from a superficial pronouns change that at times feels confusing.
Making her theatrical debut, Ava Honey is a charming Juliet bringing warmth, sincerity and youthful innocence to the role, convincingly capturing a teenage heroine, making it easy to believe in both Juliet’s defiance of her parents and her all consuming infatuation of Romeo.
Nikita Johal plays both Mercutio and Nurse. Charlotte Harwood doubles as Lady Capulet and Friar Lawrence, delivering a much more interesting performance in the latter, while Harwood's Lady Capulet often comes off as over the top and forced. James Aldred takes on three roles as Lord Montague, Tybalt and Paris.
The standout performance of the evening belongs to Matt Penson whose Lord Capulet is genuinely intimidating, balancing chilling anger, grief and authority. His transformation into kind-hearted Benvolio showcases Penson's impressive range and provides one of the production’s most convincing contrasts.
The set and costume design (Jana Lakatos) are both underwhelming. Sitting front and centre you not only get a view of the stage but also of the wings, catching everyone getting ready and preparing their instruments. A black curtain similar to the one on stage right could easily solve the problem and preserve the illusion of the performance. The shortcomings of both the staging and direction become extremely evident during one of the most emotionally charged moments, the reveal of Juliet’s apparent death. Ava Honey, in a scorching theatre, lies under a gigantic duvet that obscures not only her but also the Nurse and Lady Capulet, as they have a raw and devastating reaction to finding the young Juliet lifeless. Simply having the Nurse pull the blanket away to reveal Juliet’s body would have been able to save the scene completely.
As actors play a variety of roles, a more uniform costume choice should have been made to differentiate between Capulets and Montagues, as only the red colour assigned to the Capulets seems to stand out throughout the play. The costumes which are gendered, for a production that sets out to provide queer storytelling: Juliet in an archetypal white gown signaling her innocence and Romeo in darker clothing and masculine tailoring. There’s no cohesion, nor any ironing, of clearly off the rack clothes, too modern to accompany the shiny swords and daggers often branded by the protagonists in combat scenes (Kaitlin Howard, Fight Director), which quickly turn awkward as the silence in between clashing weapons only highlights the cast’s groans and moans.
The addition of live music (James Aldred, Musical Director), with actors turned musicians picking up guitars, ukuleles, transverse flute and percussions as they sing in pleasing harmony, feels underdeveloped and introduced just to ease the transition to a different scene apart during the union between Romeo and Juliet, where the music accompanies and culminates in a sweet duet.
Running close to 2 hours and 45 minutes, the production is already a commitment, lengthened by the lack of air conditioning or ventilation in the theatre, as you slowly sink into your hot seat surrounded by makeshift fans, out of programs or tickets. While of course this is no fault of the production itself, it is undeniable that it affects the overall experience and makes it harder to remain fully engaged with the performance.
Greenwich Theatre's Romeo and Juliet is a promising starting point, but its central concept of gender-swapped roles demands a more thoughtful exploration to offer a genuinely fresh reading of this centuries-old tale. What could have been a bold reimagining instead settles for a conventional retelling that rarely departs from Shakespeare's original.
★★.5
Romeo and Juliet plays at the Greenwich Theatre until, Saturday 25th of July:
