Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Set in modern Manchester, in an area beyond Cheetham Hill, is where we lay our scene. The Royal Exchange’s current production of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Nicholai La Barrie, takes a refreshingly defiant and contemporary approach to the much-performed Shakespearean tragedy.
The text breathes with a Mancunian twang and it’s implied that the Capulets and the Montagues are inner-city rival gangs. The text has been tweaked ever so slightly in parts, and Kate Hampson brings a bold, though frayed, matriarch in Lady Capulet, in the absence of Lord Capulet. It’s beautiful and a triumph to hear Shakespeare’s language spoken in a lyrical Mancunian accent and this is further bolstered by choice references to Manchester: the music of Elbow plays in the background of poignant scenes, Romeo’s poison is obtained via a city centre drug deal and the Capulet ball becomes a lively club night, with Juliet leading as MC.
With a true Manc swagger, David Judge is a brilliant menace as Mercutio alongside Adam Fenton’s wonderfully fresh Benvolio. Both hit the mark on character, wit, voice and meaning.
Driving the story of “star-crossed lovers” forward, Conor Glean demonstrates brutish arrogance but naivety in love as Romeo, and Shalisha James-Davis is completely likeable as Juliet, a quick-witted, confident young woman (and 17 – not 14 – at Lammastide in this production) with full autonomy of her body and sexuality. However, La Barrie’s production often evokes laughter from the audience at key moments in the lovers’ text – an example would be during the balcony scene, when Romeo reels back at Juliet’s proposal of marriage, suggesting he is only really interested in a casual fling. Straddling comedy and tragedy, new playful facets in the text are revealed – but only to the detriment of some of the character’s more meaningful moments – as such, it was hard for me to feel any emotional connection with the characters.
Good Teeth’s molten and crackled set design is minimalist but highly effective. An industrial curved metal frame is lowered down to serve as a scaffold for the balcony scene, before it is pulled back up to cast a web-like silhouette on the stage, foreshadowing the lovers’ deaths. Equally as foreboding, a raised platform serves as both the nuptial bed and also as Juliet’s catafalque.
A supernumerary company, made up of members from the Royal Exchange’s Elders and the Young Company, gives this production a strong community feel. Audience members are encouraged to join in with the dancing and whooping during the Capulet party and characters engage directly with the audience during soliloquies.
Although La Barrie’s production of Romeo & Juliet is modern, entertaining and pleasingly accessible, the show does feel somewhat imbalanced – in bringing wit and new meaning to the classic text, the aperture for any emotional connection with the characters is narrowed.
-Kristy Stott
Romeo & Juliet runs at the Royal Exchange Theatre until Saturday 18 November 2023.