Juliet is on her balcony in a flouncy orange costume and matching heels, singing a lovelorn music in French on her banjo. Romeo catches her, not within the anticipated place proper beneath her window, however yards away on the reverse aspect of the out of doors theatre. They hold this sort of distance for an agonising time, transferring across the auditorium like polar opposites. The extra they circle, the stronger the invisible bond between them grows, so when, lastly, they meet within the center and kiss, a palpable shockwave ripples by means of the viewers.
If the measure of the success of any Romeo and Juliet is the diploma to which you fall in love with the title characters, then Samuel Awoyo and Joëlle Brabban guarantee this manufacturing scores extremely. Their attraction is fierce and bodily, shiny and brainy. Juliet’s remark that Romeo kisses “by the guide” appears much less an accusation than an excuse for one more snog. If there's a probability to leap on one another, they take it. Their friskiness is matched by the punchy assurance of their supply. Why wouldn’t they be collectively?
That lays the groundwork for the motion of John Younger’s manufacturing. His setting of the play in Fifties Italy is a pleasant excuse for designer Jess Curtis to equipment the forged out in pale inexperienced skirts and mustard shirts, even when the theme goes no deeper than that. Fairly, Younger performs the primary half for all of the exuberance he can. There are boisterous battle scenes directed by Kaitlin Howard – Haylie Jones particularly sturdy as a cross-cast Mercutio – and playful viewers interplay, most notably from Nicola Blackman as a domineering Nurse, who interrupts her larking, on this evening, to pose for an viewers photograph.
Between scenes, native musicians Me + Deboe add to the color with a set of anachronistic however apposite pop songs, from Two Tribes to Smells Like Teen Spirit, with harmonious acoustic preparations.
This makes the distinction all of the extra stark because the tragedy unfolds and our summer time night turns to darkish evening. As Juliet takes to her tomb, Curtis populates the stage with a small forest of crosses festooned with fairy lights, a suitably gothic finish to an impulsive teen romance.
At Grosvenor Park theatre, Chester, till 28 August.
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