Romeo and Juliet, Norwich Playhouse

It’s a Thursday night and rather than losing our purses and dignity at Tau, the newly formed UEA Literature Society decide to stroll down to the Norwich Playhouse for a cultural evening watching a new interpretation of what is perhaps Shakespeare’s most infamous play.

Romeo and Juliet has been reproduced for the theatre on countless occasions along with various films, operas and ballets. As such, most of the audience already know the plot of the play and (thanks to GCSE coursework) huge chunks of its lines. Therefore, The Tab was hoping to see a fresh interpretation of the play, avoiding clunky clichés. Sadly, on this occasion, we were disappointed.

Icarus Theatre Collective have won many awards for their work recently, including one from Time Out, so we had high expectations of the acting quality. Unfortunately, it was patchy at best.

Some of the players did stand out – Gemma Barret’s nurse was acted with just the right amount of comedy mixed with poignancy and Zachary Holton’s Capulet added some much needed gravitas to the play – but Romeo and Juliet crucially relies on its two leads to carry the production and in this interpretation, they fell short.

Katrina Gibsin’s Juliet was immature to the point of being annoying and Kaiden Dubois’ Romeo was frankly hammy and we have to confess to having a not very well disguised giggle at his many slapstick faces of woe.

The unlikeable personas they portrayed made it hard for The Tab to feel any sympathy for the characters and the clunky delivery of some of the lines – in particular in the famous balcony scene- did nothing to recommend them further in our eyes.

By contrast, the actors playing Mercutio and Tybalt (in an excellent case of gender subversion) had our eyes glued to their stage – the combat techniques that the actors had practiced were truly proficient.

It would be wrong to criticize this production wholly – the costumes and set were all very much in keeping with the naturalistic effect the company were trying to achieve and the use of music and movement were very good.

However, for this most famous love story of all time, it is necessary to feel the pain that Romeo and Juliet suffer and to ultimately root for the happy ending that we know will never come. Sadly, in the case of this production, when the famous suicide scene rolled round, we were more apt to breathe a sigh of relief.