Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet offers “…wonderful choreographies and spirited performances…Crowd-pleasing but flawed is certainly preferable to its inverse relation.”
📍Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
📅 Tue 19 to Sat 23 Sep 2023
🕖 Evenings: 7.30pm; Matinees: 2.30pm
🕖 Running time (approx.): 2h and 10min (including a 20min interval)
🎬 Director & Choreographer: Matthew Bourne
🎶 Composer: Sergei Prokofiev
🛠️ Set & Costume Designer: Lez Brotherstone
🎂 14+
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Wheelchair Accessible Toilet, Audio Enhancement System
In theory, this is Shakespeare’s tale of doomed young love reimagined for the 21st century. In truth, all that Matthew Bourne’s rendition has in common with the Bard’s is the soundtrack Sergei Prokofiev composed in 1935. Removed to the mysterious ‘Verona Institute’, a fuzzily-defined hybrid of asylum and youth borstal, this Romeo (Rory Macleod) and Juliet (Cordelia Braithwaite) meet under traumatic circumstances.
There are no rival families here, no feuds, just a prison plagued by a sexual predator turned warder played by Danny Reuben and wearing Tybalt’s name. Friar Laurence gets the most faithful translation, now the Rev. Bernadette Laurence (Daisy May Kemp), the institute chaplain, and facilitator of proscribed romances. Mercutio (Cameron Flynn), is – however – reduced to a well-meaning joker, and sacrificial lamb. Beyond this, the remainder of the dramatic personae are reduced to a mostly undistinguished band of fairly amiable fellow inmates.
The dancing is undoubtedly fabulous, rich with Bourne’s trademark gift for dramatisation and storytelling. This is very much modern dance, not classical ballet, the partner work intimate and visceral, the company mostly barefoot. There’s a fabulous rhythm to proceedings, scenes giving way to each other naturally, and seamlessly. Lez Brotherstone’s austerely magnificent set, a caged amphitheatre of sorts, heightens the drama further. There’s drama in every step, and and adventure laced through every dynamic moment.
Unquestionably, Romeo + Juliet is at its absolute best when Macleod and Braithwaite court each other, nerves giving way to passion, and when separated, longing. There’s one particularly wonderful scene where the two, in separate cells, remember their time together, whilst other pairs from the company replay their romantic choreography. It’s both sophisticated and relatable ie what Matthew Bourne is so very good at.
Fitting Prokofiev’s festivity-laden score to this story of abuse, and homicide (accidental and otherwise), is a bit of a stretch. However, Terry Davies‘ arrangement for chamber orchestra does scale back the majesty, allowing space for some of the quieter passages to shine in particular. The momentous ‘Dance of the Knights’ remains a thumping highlight, even if there’s a distinct lack of knights on stage. The quality of the recording is acceptable, but – as always – no substitute for a live orchestra.
Narratively, Romeo + Juliet has a few problems, however. Juliet, raped by Tybalt in the opening scenes, is bizarrely receptive to newcomer Romeo, her trauma only returning much later to facilitate the terminal finale. Despite there being no intimation that the inmates are remotely dangerous, the warders carry guns, and down in the morgue (yes there’s a morgue), bodies are left lying around for weeks at a time.
Yes, it’s an abstract world, fit for Orwell or Huxley, but a story does require internal logic, however altered the reality of its context. Now it should be said that the audience seemed pleased enough come the curtain calls, and between the wonderful choreographies, and spirited performances, such a reception is more than warranted. Crowd-pleasing but flawed is certainly preferable to its inverse relation. Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet may be flawed, but it remains excellent.
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