Certainly the story is familiar enough. Young lovers from rival houses meet, fall helplessly in love at first sight, attempt to outmanoeuvre the swinging blade of fate and eventually, inevitably, meet their deaths, through which their families find a way to cement a grief-stricken peace. And yet, as with Shakespeare’s other plays, there is such pleasure in revisiting it again and again.

Ross Gumbley’s production of Romeo and Juliet is energetic and muscular, whipping through the story at high speed, and emphasising the relationship between the lovers rather than the machinations of family and fate around them. It leans straight into the action with a violent clash between associates of the warring Montague and Capulet families – the first of many fine pieces of stage combat, choreographed by Tony Wolf – and keeps the pedal down until the end. 

Cameron Douglas (Romeo: earnest, impassioned) and Natasha Daniel (Juliet: smart, headstrong) have an easy chemistry and a sense of maturity about them that recasts their love as more considered than reckless and impulsive. They lead a charismatic presentation, high in concept and heavy on wit, purpose and movement, but often light on pathos.

The large cast, which is augmented with final year students from the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Arts, ably maintain this energy and clarity and work together with ease.

The design team – Julian Southgate (set), Giles Tanner (lights), Sean Hawkins (sound) and Tina Hutchison-Thomas (costume) – have done a magnificent job of realising the stylishly anachronistic Italian world of the play. The pillared faux-marble setting is by turns expansive, imposing, intimate and oppressive, featuring shifts in time and place that are both impressive and quite lovely to look at. The costuming and the sound design intertwine modern urban style with classical grace, and much of the story is told through shifts in colour and tone. (Admission: I spend a good deal of time admiring the men’s marvellous shoes.)

Together, these design elements blend the contemporary and the classical in a manner that is deeply satisfying and that emphasises the youthful yet timeless nature of the play’s themes. There are some exquisite moments where the production’s elements cohere beautifully: the lovers’ wedding, fireworks at the Capulets’ mansion, Juliet’s placement in the tomb, Romeo’s grim wait in Mantua.

While I lap up the production’s design and imagery, I am left quite dissatisfied by other aspects. Notes in the programme emphasise the continuing relevance of Shakespeare’s work to a modern audience while denigrating the way that the high school English curriculum allows students to work with popular texts at, perhaps, the expense of classical ones. Given these statements I am frustrated the language, nuance and metaphor of the play’s text regularly take back seat to the perceived need to whip through the plot and serve up spectacle. There is rarely a sense that characters are making in-the-moment choices that both serve themselves and move fatalistically towards the play’s climax. 

The meeting of the young lovers exemplifies this. The moment at the Capulet’s ball where Romeo first sees Juliet and all thoughts of his previous love Rosalind fall away, the first kiss between the couple, and then the revelation that they come from warring families all happen so quickly, and with almost no time for reflection, that there is no sense that the world has titled on its axis for the two, nor that they are aware of the enormity of their transgression – an awareness that is the key to the conflict and the various tragic deceptions. These become plot points to be flicked away, rather than the poetic, emotional tectonic shifts that the play’s pleasures and horrors are built upon.

It is not until well through the second half of the production that such character-centric moments are given the space that they deserve. Capulet’s (Tom Trevella) violent admonition of his daughter is quite shocking, and Lady Capulet’s (Kim Garrett) troubled shifts between affection and duty are played with passion and nuance. I am affected and moved by the loving Nurse’s (Yvonne Martin) reactions to the unfolding tragedies, especially given the wit and warmth with which she is presented early on.

The cast is packed with talented, intelligent and highly capable actors, but they’ve been given so little space in which to exercise their artistic muscles and explore the play through movement and voice that I sit throughout the show getting progressively more annoyed. 

There is no doubt that this play is beautifully presented, and it continues the Court Theatre’s clear and admirable commitment to gorgeous production design and the creation of coherent theatrical worlds that make full and creative use of the theatre’s space. The audience certainly enjoys themselves but I leave entertained, not emotionally swayed, and with the sense that this production tends toward surface rather than depth and doesn’t entirely trust the actors, nor the audience, nor the text to speak for itself.

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