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Thus with a kiss I die . . . Kyle Ndukuba as Romeo and Mia Khan as Juliet. Pictures: Nicola Young Photography Romeo and Juliet Coventry Belgrade ***** I must admit, I went to see the Belgrade's latest show with some trepidation. It's a collaboration not just with two leading London and Provincial theatres, but with the group "That's a Rap". Was Romeo and Juliet to be bastardised into some kind of Musical tosh? Would the immortal lines be maltreated? Would the story "uncover modern and relevant perspectives", and "immersive theatrical experience", "transformative"! change making theatre". . . ? (their words). Oh dear: it sounds dire. But how wrong can one be? The music (Reisz Amos Musical Director and Choir Choir Lead), two 'lyricists' who contributed numbers (but much to their credit, and fine judgement, not too many), so far from spoiling things, actually contributed, especially because it provided breathers, or pauses, amid the action. And not diversionary: a good deal was turning Shakespeare’s iambics into Rap. Not just an ingenious idea, but immensely skillful and utterly professional. But this was indeed a professional production, with actors of quality from the very moment the Henry V-like prologue . . . "Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene" . . . begins his preface. Wait! The speaking from his first words, was superb: everyone, just everyone, enunciated the Bard's lines as well as (better than?) anything you might find at the RSC or the National Theatre. Even Prince Escalus (Pete Ashmore, who like several performers - the Nurse, Tybalt - also played an instrument, his a violin), and spoke with not just great authority: "Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Throw your mis-tempered weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your moved prince" - but actually hammered out, aptly perhaps, his impressive 23 lines calling the warring families - whose brouhahas have "thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets" - severely to order. He may be prince of Verona, but you'd think he has the stature of the Doge of Venice himself.
Montague, in fact, was played by a girl (Ellena Vincent, suitably assertive, and though seeming like Lady Montague taking charge, more likely playing her husband), while Capulet (the excellent Asheq Akhtar) - not least in organising the party (ball), and refusing to arrest or hurt Romeo - the boyish Montague who has gatecrashed the celebrations, despite the savage fury of Tybalt (Samuel Gosrani), who will pay back fancy dressed - i.e. spurning both skirmishing houses - Mercutio (Dillon Scott-Lewis, wonderful and besotting in the Queen Mab speech; what miraculous enunciation we had from them all, maybe owed partly - or a lot - to Voice Coach Simon Ratcliffe) for his mocking by killing him - a well done scene, though seemingly we had to imagine the knives - and paying for it by being killed by Romeo, the moment which sets in train events right up to the deaths of the "star-cross'd lovers" after the failure, slightly feeble, of the Franciscan Friar Laurence (Yasmin Wilde, very good and believable) to avoid precisely a tragedy (Romeo's feigned death and suicide, Juliet's consequent conclusion). Simon Kenny costumed Mercutio, and I think differentiated Montague (red) from Capulet (white); but also provided the pretty brilliant set (encircling series of very beautiful beech-like wooden slats, openable, able to glare light (Chris Swain, with a superb plan for stage colouring, follow spots (once especially amusing: this show had a nice feel for comedy - Natasha Lewis's gossipy Nurse - amid the building horror) like peering eyes (one rapid sequence, amber-rose-turquoise blue-red, especially eye-catching).
Samuel Gosrani as Tybalt and Mia Khan as Juliet Benvolio - was it possibly he (Andre Antonio) who spoke those heraldic first lines so impressively?) has a far bigger role than I'd remembered. He's there to fend off Tybalt and his thugs; he's there, foreseeing the consequences - Benvolio is the intelligent one - to try and prevent Romeo from impetuously slaying Tybalt (vengefully, for the whole Capulet Montague feud must have been peppered with American or Sicilian Mafia-like murders, and it is Romeo's futility that he falls into the same family tradition - until Juliet changes everything (the party intrusion anticipates his desire to heal the wounds and forgive - befriend - those previously hateful, utterly spurned Capulets. Indeed not just Akhtar's authoritive family head, but Lauren Moakes' splendidly delivered (yet another tip-top speaker) Lady Capulet, who has of course scenes with her daughter - Mia Khan as a touching Juliet, her unaware mother first mixing affection with upbraiding, but then telling her the fatal news that she is to marry the well off Count - "County" – Paris, Elwyn Williams; Paris, buttered up by Capulet is, as worsted as they at the end (the discovery of the twin suicides), always a hapless, slightly wet and weedy figure, but here with a bit more stature and presence. And it is the alternative wedding plan foisted on Juliet that sets her disobedience - and hence the whole tragedy - under way, for all the joys of the balcony speech, making further use of Simon Kenny's excellent stepped platform (used for Capulet's enunciations, for instance), the balcony which Juliet hangs over and under which Romeo amusingly keeps hiding, another comic touch. But also a clever one on a barish stage but here enhanced by a notably artful centrepiece. It was also noticeable how skillfully the music was adapted to gentle and subdued, never intervening with Rap-like noises at moments of quiet intensity, even enhancing those: a lot. A small band yet with added actor's contributions able to be quite fulsome where needed. And again, one has to say, where the Rap (usually a few, occasionally a castful) takes over for a modest gig, it's the sheer ecstasy of hearing Shakespeare's five-feet lines turned to such enrapturing effect. Here indeed was the transformative, change-making theatre mentioned (questioned) at the start.
Yasmin Wilde as Friar Laurence Of course so much hinges on the Fatal couple, Juliet and Romeo. Mia Khan's Juliet exuded charm and beauty, perhaps as much in her scenes with the Nurse (who offers ill-advised advice, but makes good use of the rather sweet, hectic little servant Peter) or with Friar Laurence: "Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off..." than the actual balcony scene. And of course, Juliet - misguidedly ending her own life, is - at that stage in the family vault (great possibilities for an RSC Designer: busts, statues upright or recumbant, musty smell) - half the picture. Kyle Ndukuba was - can you believe it? - fresh out of LAMDA - Chekhov, Euripides, Shakespeare (Measure for Measure) - making his Professional stage debut here at the Belgrade. He was wonderful. He has the moods, the fear, the risking, the explosive, the adoring - to a 'T'. His speaking was like one continuous polished gem. "But, soft! what light through yonder breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"; "It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear"; "Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs.; Being purg'd, a fire sparklimg in lovers' eyes"; "My dreams presage some joyful news at hand... an unaccustomed spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts." If only he knew. But this was the joy of Ndukuba's performance. He caught the optimism, the flamboyance, the hesitancy, the rashness, the hope, the touchingness, the disappointment, the determination. And the beauty. Are R & J both in their teens? She, marriageable in those days (by an arranged marriage), certainly is. His proneness to ecstasy, childishness, volubility, all make it obvious: he is, too. The double death at the close becomes all the more poignant. They're kids. Corey Campbell, the Belgrade's Creative (previously Co-artistic) Director, and hitherto doyen of Strictly Arts Theatre Company and Club 2B, must surely take much if not most of the credit for this overall superb production, packed with clever ideas and almost fearfully intelligent. With him we should add his Assistant Director, Jay Zorenti-Nakhid - Associate Director with the Belgrade and previously in the same role with Tobacco Factory Theatre. This was one hell of a good show, and it's to these two overseers - and their magnificent team - we must owe so much of the well-deserved credit. Roderic Dunnett 26-02-25 |
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