Play review, Romeo and Juliet

Review of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Performed on Tuesday 23^rd November 2010 by the Southend Shakespeare Company, Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea, Essex.

By Carla Riley

In fair Verona we sat and surveyed the scene before us, for two hours traffic with patient ears we did attend to the SCC performance of Romeo and Juliet, a play known to many in various guises and forms, from the modern re-interpretation of Leonardo DiCaprio in Verona beach to the dramatic tensions of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1960s re telling and even West Side Story. This performance sticks to the regular format of traditional text and costume as well as two young leads that almost convince they are the star-cross’d lovers ignorant in their innocence of the fate which will befall them.

It is this innocence and spark between the two main leads which is the most important part of the play to me; we must believe that they would give up everything to be together, family, friends and even their lives. In this way, although technically and professionally competent, we never really believe that Tyler Conti (Romeo) and Elena Clements (Juliet) have enough passion for their own romance, let alone enough to carry the whole play. This is a shame as Clements especially has performed admirably in a variety of challenging roles for the SCC in previous seasons, even convincing as Joan of Arc (complete with passable French accent). It fell then to Fred Hickey as Mercutio to carry the early scenes of the play until his untimely demise, I for one look forward to any other work he performs in as he added vibrancy to the play that never quite recovered itself after he left the stage.

As always, the intimate setting of the Dixon Studio remains the only way to see small scale theatre, allowing the watcher to immerse themselves in the action and language and really feel part of the play, get under the skin of the characters and lose themselves as the story unfolds. Madeleine Ayers more than helped to make up for the lead pairs limitations by portraying the Nurse as a real three dimensional character, both comedic and serious by turns and always utterly riveting. The plays themes of punishment for the sins of the Father’s comes to the forefront in this performance, showing how even limited sets, costumes and space can create a visual representation of a far larger area, with one set used as Juliet’s balcony, her bedroom and eventually her tomb. The sound effects of the tomb echoes itself seemed a work in progress, spoiling the actors lines and creating a barrier to understand the language and emotions on view, however, first night performances rarely resemble those further in the tour so maybe this had been rectified by later performances.

For a play so well known, the SCC have done well to create some fantastic performances from Ayres and Hickey, it’s just a shame that the passion and danger was all in the wrong places.

 Stay tuned for more reviews coming in the next few months