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Theatre

Romeo and Juliet, Garrick Theatre review ★★★★★

12 May 16 – 13 Aug 16, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM

Freddie Fox takes over the role of Romeo after Richard Madden pulls out due to injury

By Lucy Brooks on 8/8/2016

8 CW readers are interested
Lily James and Richard Madden: Romeo and Juliet photo by Johan Persson
Lily James and Richard Madden: Romeo and Juliet photo by Johan Persson
Romeo and Juliet, Garrick Theatre review 3 Romeo and Juliet, Garrick Theatre review Lucy Brooks


CAST UPDATE: Freddie Fox will take over the role or Romeo after Richard Madden has had to pull out due to injury.





Take a Game of Thrones Prince Charming, a Cinderella whose beauty is emblazoned across Billboards and our foremost director of Shakespeare and what do you get?


Well, a full West End theatre.


Kenneth Branagh’s production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre is easily the sexiest offering in a commemorative year packed with Shakespeare.


With Lily James (Downton Abbey, Cinderella) and Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Cinderella) as the star-crossed lovers firing up the under 30s, plus Shakespearean stalwart Derek Jacobi for the more seasoned theatregoers, it was always going to be a crowd pleaser.


Branagh plays to the masses with a stylish, slick take on the tragedy.


Dripping with 1950s Dolce Vita glamour, set in a sleek stone piazza, with full-skirted, shiny-suited monochrome costumes reminiscent of a Fellini film, it’s delightfully watchable.


Too easy to watch sometimes. A soundtrack of easy-listening lounge jazz in the background cheapens the poetry with strains of primetime adverts for Italian package holidays.


It’s a play built on oxymoron, structurally and linguistically, and this production reaches neither extreme. The rollercoaster of emotions – from seduction to suicide – is smoothed over. Branagh’s take is entertaining and engagingly fast-paced, but often at the cost of tenderness and tension.


The caveat and leading light is Lily James’ Juliet. Burning brighter than the torches, taking in the spotlight at the masked ball and caressing the mic stand, she is magnetic (and alarmingly alluring, if we are supposed to believe Juliet is 14).


But James brings more than just radiance to the part. She makes the sudden all-consuming infatuation relatable and fresh. But there’s a keen sense of the intensity of youth too; sweet nothings to Romeo from the balcony are interrupted with a snappy, sulky rant at her mum. Then, in the second half, James brings the same unaffected vigour to Juliet’s desperate demise.



In comparison, Richard Madden’s more impassive Romeo feels pedestrian. Not quite the dangerous cad nor the tortured romantic hero, he seems instead like the kind of suit-wearing young man mothers hope their daughter will marry.


The chemistry doesn’t sizzle and that bitter post-coital moment before Romeo leaves for exile is staged with brother/sister playfulness.


Comedy and spark comes courtesy of the mighty Derek Jacobi as Mercutio. He relishes every last syllable in the most spirited Queen Mab speech we’ve ever seen. The pure panache he brings to the role almost justifies the unconventional casting.


But it still doesn’t make much sense. Young Romeo’s best friend and confidante is a suave white-haired septuagenarian with a walking stick. ‘To see him in Shakespeare is an event in itself’ Branagh said of the casting. And indeed it is… even if it left the teens behind us confused about the ‘random old guy’.


Much of the animated, magnetic energy dies along with Mercutio at the end of the first half, but it doesn’t have the tragic thrust of wasted young life.


And from there the second half, with its rising body count and familiar ending, never quite transcends the familiar. Of course everyone is expecting the double suicide; over-exposure has made us numb. This production serves up the crypt scene with elegance, but fails to make its audience see the plot afresh and really feel for the woeful ill-fated lovers.




BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW



by Lucy Brooks

What Romeo and Juliet, Garrick Theatre review
Where Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0HH | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 12 May 16 – 13 Aug 16, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Price £15 - £95
Website Click here to book tickets



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    KENNETH BRANAGH THEATRE COMPANY

    The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company will be resident at the Garrick Theatre for a year from October 2015, with a creative team including director Sean Foley, choreographer/director Rob Ashford, set designer Christopher Oram and casting director Lucy Bevan.

    PLAYS AT THE GARRICK

    23 years after his first troupe, Renaissance Theatre, disbanded, Kenneth Branagh's season, called Plays at the Garrick, shows a dramatic return to the London stage. Having previously vocalised interest in The Old Vic Theatre (run by fellow actor Kevin Spacey), Branagh was held back by his film-making commitments. Now he is following in the footsteps of Michael Grandage, whose 2014 season at the Noel Coward Theatre was a smash hit success, and Jamie Lloyd, who is matching this success in his second season at Trafalgar Studios. 

What members say

    Heart-wrenching adaptation with Derek Jacobi entirely stealing the show (though bizarre casting that made the sword-fighting slightly awkward). Lily James Read more

    Alice Godwin

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