Romeo and Juliet comes home: Northern Ballet at Stratford-upon-Avon

Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
September 21, 2024

There was a time when ballet companies used to visit the Royal Shakespeare Theatre reasonably often, including the then Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and the original London City Ballet, whose 1995 visit with Giselle and a mixed bill was, I think, the last time ballet graced its stage. But it’s back, and what could be more appropriate in the theatre named after the Bard, than Romeo and Juliet?

Another reason to celebrate is that Northern Ballet ’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy came close to being lost, having been off stage for 16 years after a disastrous flood badly damaged Lez Brotherston’s costumes and sets, now restored to their former glory.

Devised in 1991 by Christopher Gable, with choreography by Massimo Moricone, it is a powerful, very affecting telling of the tragedy. That it is a tragedy, that all is not going to end well, is emphasised by the deep rumble of thunder that greets the opening of all three acts.

The two families are painted very differently. Dressed in black and gold, with Tybalt and his henchmen in studded leather, the Capulets are largely cold and serious. At the ball, the Dance of the Knights is no refined danced for all but a powerful, hard-edged number performed with staves, a clear warning to anyone who might think about messing with them by the men of the clan. In contrast, Romeo and friends come in white with flashes of black and gold, and altogether have a brighter outlook on life.

As much as there is the rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets, and as exciting are their fights, the main theme of Romeo and Juliet is the latter’s journey through adolescence, first love and sexual awakening, and the tragedy that follows.

Sarah Chun is a fine Juliet who speaks as much with her face as with her feet. She’s like a feather, blown along by the winds of fate. Beautiful, but totally at the mercy of events and her own emotions. Experiencing ecstatic highs along the way, but never really in control of her destiny.

Their proposed marriage may be an arranged affair but Juliet initially looks happy to be dancing with George Liang’s Paris, who hints at feelings in return. He’s cool but far from the cold character often portrayed. Perhaps it’s just the first time she’s danced with a man like this, but you sense she does have eyes for him. Until Romeo shows up.

When Juliet finally locks eyes with Romeo, the excellent Kevin Poeung, time stands still, the couple staring at each other while the ball goes on around them, then the reverse, the other guests freezing as they dance. Here, and later in the balcony and bedroom pas de deux, Moricone’s choreography is beautiful, fluid and lilting. They truly make us care.

Chun’s demeanour with Romeo is in stark contrast to her second duet with Liang, a dance that in many ways is full of feeling but that is ultimately empty.

Of course, we all know where the story is going. And when the end comes, the sight of the Romeo and Juliet in turn dancing with their lifeless other is incredibly poignant.

Antoni Cañellas Artigues is a fine Tybalt, a man with a short fuse that seems to be permanently smouldering and quite a temper, at one point even raising a fist to his father. As his mother, Harriet Marden, gave an intensely dramatic, screaming, shrieking display over his dead body, a stark contrast to her bearing when Juliet has apparently passed away, when she is cold and quite dismissive as she tells the nurse to ‘deal with it.’

Filippo Di Vilio’s livewire Mercutio was full of carefree cheekiness and energetic dancing. As Juliet’s nurse, Helen Bogatch showed great comic timing, her little looks and gestures bringing humour to the story several times.

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s thrust stage has led to a few choreographic tweaks, including dancers sometimes entering and exiting via two walkways through the audience. The big plus, and especially as there is no orchestra, the music being recorded, is that is brings the action much close to those watching. Indeed, those in the front row were barely inches from the dancers on occasion.

Brotherston’s set of crumbling walls with huge Latin inscriptions and pillars that glide back and forth as required is very effective, with just a curtain, a bed or whatever needed to emphasise location.

That the music at Stratford is not live is disappointing, but the recording is lush, the theatre’s acoustics are excellent, and it works well.

The storytelling is not entirely perfect. The ballet is certainly not without its narrative oddities, not least that Juliet witnesses Romeo’s killing of Tybalt, yet just moments later is asleep in bed with Romeo as if nothing had happened.

But, while edited here and there it may be, Northern Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet is a fine evening. It may not quite hit the same dramatic highs as Kenneth MacMillan’s benchmark version (in Britain at least), let alone the superior to that ballet by John Cranko, but it’s a fine production that moves on at pace. Not a second is wasted. It’s fabulous to see it again and its Northern Ballet at their best.

Northern Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet continues at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon to September 28, 2024.

Later in the autumn the company returns with another Gable/Moricone favourite, A Christmas Carol. Visit northernballet.com for dates, venues and booking links.