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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Romeo and Juliet
- Tour.
Director - Mary McCluskey. Designer - Finlay McLay. Musical Director - Keith Munro. Movement Director - Julie Austin. Fight Director - David Carter. Lighting Designer - Peter Searle. Cast - here . Company - Scottish Youth Theatre 0141 221 5127. Venue - The Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow 0141 429 0022. Dates - 9 to 12 April full details of dates in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Running time - 2 hours 30 minutes (15 minute interval). Reviewer - Scott Palmer. Painfully and believably young love.. Barry Kraft, Head of Literary Services at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, has said of the play "Every time I read it, it seems as if it is the first time...". There is a reason Romeo and Juliet is the Bard's most enduring, most often performed and adapted, most often recalled and remembered, play. There is such depth and breadth to the story, to the language and to these characters that we all think we know so well. What a challenge it must have been then for Mary McCluskey to direct a group of passionate youths in this production...a production that for many of them was literally their "first time." McCluskey treats the verse with a delicate hand, trimming in places and cutting deep in others, but maintaining the epic sweep and speed of a story that we must remember takes place over just a few short days. The stark set, black towers with hints of glass bricks, is a perfect stoic backdrop to the waves of turmoil that threaten to drown our hero and heroine at every turn...a set beautifully and elegantly painted with light throughout the production. McCluskey makes some very clever choices, particularly in casting both Benvolio and Mercutio as young women, and is equally clever with ensemble work and musical touches throughout. But it must be said that the true stars of the show were indeed the star-crossed lovers of the title, and their youthful colleagues who at times both evince naïve eagerness for the verse with a far more mature understanding of the agony of love gone horribly wrong. Gareth Whyte's Romeo garners more than a few sighs from the young women in the audience with his soon-to-be matinee idol good looks and ease of performance, while Cara Tolmie's Juliet is all I have ever wanted a Juliet to be…a real, honest to god teenage girl speaking dreamily and powerfully of a love beyond her years. Both Romeo and Juliet have McCluskey to thank for giving them such simple, honest direction. There is nothing tricksy here, just two young people painfully, and believably, lost in a love that cannot be. As the Nurse, Jennie Cook is a scene-stealer, both endearingly funny and moving as Juliet's confidant and foster-mother, while Fraser McEwen threatens to steal the show in the first act in a comic turn as Peter worthy of an actor three times his age. Although there may have been a less obvious choice than leather trousers, black trench coats and boots for the costumes (too many hints of the recent big-screen version), and the last act seemed to drag on a bit near the end, the cast of Scottish Youth Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet not only approach the play as if it were their first time, they made me feel like it was my first time, too...all over again. © Scott Palmer, March 4 2003 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast List - Theatre listings >
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