Review: Romeo & Juliet, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘Exceptional, defiant and ceaselessly inventive’

The unquestionable greatness of William Shakespeare has never in my view been more beautifully or more totally surmised than in the opening line of Matthew Arnold’s poem Shakespeare: “Others abide our question. Thou art free”. Encountering this giant – as most artists will have to sooner or later – can be intimidating. Towering genius casts a long shadow, and that dark has stultified many actors and directors who brush up against it.

How then can artists revivify a play produced more than any in history? How to avoid the grooves of convention carved into its pages by visionless armies retreading the steps of those who retread the steps of those before? How do Romeo and Juliet so boldly defy the imposing custom and history of their families’ feud? Because they are young, and they are in love.

This striking parallel has affected me tremendously since I first drew it. The task facing Director Julia Head and her cohort of Young Company and Young SixSix actors is not at all unlike the challenge confronting our “star-cross’d lovers”. Both contend with a tradition of interaction: one between Montagues and Capulets, one between actors and Shakespeare. Both are in love: Romeo and Juliet with each other, this creative team – as is made gloriously apparent by the show – with theatre.

Young Company and The Young SixSix are initiatives birthed by Bristol Old Vic’s Engagement Department. They represent in my opinion the most interesting and necessary work currently conducted by the theatre as a whole, generating pathways into a lamentably exclusive art form for those who may not otherwise have obtained access.

This production takes place in The Weston Studio, which we find transformed into a bull-fighting ring. That is to say, the stage itself is a circular sandpit. Director Julia Head mentioned to me during the interval that this was designed to represent the inevitability of death present in both bull-fighting and any modern production of this famous play. This staging was for my money one of the smartest creative decisions I’ve recently had the pleasure of seeing.

The performances were sublime. Tybalt (Dupri Walker) and Mercutio’s (Kieran Graham) renowned fight scene was an enormous credit to movement director Liana Cottrill, whose grief as Vanessa Capulet at Tybalt’s death was searing in its humanity. Walker and Graham’s portrayal of loyalty and aggression is fierce and resounding. This moment, as Tybalt and Mercutio lay dead, was unspeakably moving. The scene recalled irresistibly to mind the harrowing instances of knife crime within our cities. Confronting an audience likely to be removed from the reality of inner city violence in such a visceral manner contributed to the emotional urgency of this production.

Photo: Chelsey Cliff

In moments of quiet intimacy between Romeo and Juliet, musical director Jack Orozco Morrison tread tactfully the line between accompaniment and substance. The score throughout – composed by both Morrison and Simon Burke – was extremely tasteful. Burke’s timing on the drums is impeccable; Morrison’s touch on piano exudes elegance.

The young lovers themselves were expertly cast. Elizabeth Anderson’s Juliet embodies a buoyant hope and excitement in her early meetings with Romeo, and watching this hope explode into unbridled despair is made agonising by Anderson’s stunningly evocative performance.

Thabo Kona’s Romeo commands constant audience sympathy; he is gallant and courageous and gentle. Several audience members audibly wept at his death. Kona’s performance is remarkable in its poise and sensitivity.

Liana Cottrill and company – photo: Chelsey Cliff

The entire cast performed exceptionally well, and it would be a crying injustice not to celebrate them all: Elizabeth Anderson (Juliet Capulet), Sadie Gray (Marta Capulet), Dupri Walker (Tybalt Capulet), Liana Cottrill (Vanessa Capulet), Tamzin Khan (Jude Capulet), Kira McGuinness (Piper Capulet), Krish Bhakerd (Anda Capulet), Ben Fairman (Abram Capulet), Thabo Kona (Romeo Montague), Keiran Graham (Mercutio Montague), Khadijah Sawyers (Benvolio Montague), Milly Fitzgerald (Stella Montague), Jacob Thomas (Samson Montague), Daniel Forbes (Pax), Grace Dobson (Frieda Lawrence), Toby Puncher (Paris).

Director Julia Head has been the name on everybody’s lips for a while now. Head is so obviously an artist, which may not sound like much, but is by some distance the highest compliment I can pay. Head’s work keeps its feet on the ground, always remembering it is telling a story about humanity to humanity. Her work is ceaselessly inventive, restless and defiant. It is genius, and I don’t use that term lightly.

Grace Dobson – photo: Chelsey Cliff

Artistry is about novelty. It is about drawing connections between things not before connected, about expanding and challenging boundaries between ideas in search for an interesting or curious convergence. It takes incredible creativity, integrity and conviction to continually reimagine the possibilities of theatre in the way Head does. Perhaps the most foolish thing you could do in Bristol’s art scene is to miss whatever she does next.

William Shakespeare has undoubtedly become an institution unto himself. Productions of his work often feel tired and predictable. The surname Shakespeare now holds more gravitas than Montague or Capulet do in the play. This particular production reiterated the lesson The Bard was imparting within the script: at all times, in all places, the antidote to institutions which threaten to stagnate and corrupt is radical, youthful, uncontainable love.

Romeo & Juliet is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic, King Street, Bristol, BS1 4ED from January 12-15, at 7.30pm, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday 15. Tickets are available from www.bristololdvic.org.uk.

Main photo: Chelsey Cliff

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