The Bard’s complex meditation on the power of love sparkles into life on a bare stage of compelling physical intimacy, in which earthy buffoonery rubs shoulders with the most transcendent poetry.

The Pop-up Globe makes you realise how much modern theatre has regressed by privileging the requirements of the performance space over the all-important relationship with the audience.

Those just in front of the stage are in the best position to enjoy the show. [More]

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Hands down the Pop Up Globe is a thrilling theatre experience for Aucklanders: this incredible full scale replica of The Globe constructed 400 years after Shakespeare’s death out of plywood and scaffolding, with the sawdust still on the floor under the groundlings’ feet in the standing ‘cheap seats’. Most staggering about the experience is how being inside the Pop Up Globe feels so similar to being inside the real Globe in London.

It is a special thing to see Romeo and Juliet performed in the space it was designed for, true to the Jacobean times in which it was written (no set, no lights, no holds barred on the gore).

The cast of New Zealanders more than lives up to the expectation of the hallowed ground on which they perform. Headed by UK director Ben Naylor, the production is rich, full, lively and hilarious. It pops and zings, hitting all the right notes.

While long at over 2.5 hours, it has a lightness of touch and brings a freshness to well-worn scenes that can easily feel clichéd. The death of the lovers is pure tragedy and the goading of the nurse by Mercutio is a highlight of the production.

The fight scenes too, are nail biting with lashings of fake blood under Alexander James Holloway’s direction. Chris Jannides’s choreography as a whole brings a focus and edge to the story.

Juliet (Christel Chapman) and Romeo (Jonathan Tynan-Moss) are every bit our youthful star struck lovers. Nurse (Carmel McGlone) is wonderfully funny and Mercutio (Stanley Andrew Jackson III) is superb: he has me crying with laughter. Also strong is Daniel Watterson’s Benvolio, as a great foil to Romeo’s sappiness.

Frair Lawrence is a lynch pin to the story. Edward Newborn plays him with a quiet grace – another victim of the hot-blooded times in which they live. He’s the kind man with a cross too hard to bear. In trying to keep the peace he simply causes more, tragic, bloodshed.

This is a fantastic chance to see Shakespeare’s most beloved immortal tragedy; this classic tale of violent passions and delicate young love in a hostile world, performed in the manner it was intended, in the building it was intended.

With a strong cast and confident direction, in the Pop Up Globe Romeo and Juliet simply zings. Even those with only a passing interest in Shakespeare are bound to be captivated by the whole experience. 

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