Romeo & Juliet

One might think “Oh no, not yet another version of that play.” And one would be wrong! The National Youth Theatre Company managed to jazz up this classic by setting it up in the 1950’s London, where the Teddy boys and girls would spread violence and where a young love from two rival families would send adults into a frantic anger.

We all know the story of Romeo and Juliet, two star crossed lovers destined to a tragic fate. But, as long as you haven’t seen it live on a stage, you cannot quite perceive the cleverness of the text, the timeless themes and the tragedy of losing hope.
The National Youth Theatre delivered a fantastic show, staying true to the original text but giving a twist to the staging and their characters.
The opening scene, depicting a street fight between the Capulet and the Montague sets the bar of expectations really high. And the whole play does not lower it down one bit. The masquerade bal scene is a brilliant danced party, the secret wedding scene is like flicking through a photo album and the ending scene will make you shed a tear (which is always a sign of high quality!). The best staged scene is the one with the Juliet-Nurse duo and the Romeo-Friar Laurence duo: all four characters in one scene, having important decisions to make, yet it is smoothly done so you can follow the plot and feel the tension growing.

The young actors are immensely talented and it is so impressive to see them deliver and act their lines in such a modern way. Shalisha James-Davis, who plays a loveable and genuine Juliet, was simply brilliant. IT was easy to relate to her Juliet, to feel the high and the butterflies of love at first sight with her, to sense her despair and hopelessness, to understand the difficult choices she has to make, to cry over her death.
Arianna Beadie is the Nurse and did an incredible job at making the audience laugh and cry. She is caring, sassy, sarcastic but also down to earth and wanting the best for her sweet Juliet. Miss Beadie took us on a rollercoaster of emotions and, whenever she was on stage, she was stealing the audience’s full attention!

Overall, it was quite the experience and I would highly recommend this play to everyone: it will please the ultimate fans of the doomed lovers, the newbies who have never seen this play on a stage, the experienced theatre-goers who feel they might have seen it all when it comes to Romeo and Juliet.
The play runs until the 23rd of November at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End. Go and rediscover Shakespeare’s greatest love story…