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A high body count as the Prince orders an end
to street brawls in 14th century Verona. Picture: Bill Cooper
Romeo and Juliet
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Hippodrome
****
The last time I saw this production it
was the now retired Iain Mackay in the title role, this time, Brandon
Lawrence has stepped up to the plate to take on the role of Romeo.
In the past he has looked a competent, athletic
dancer but here he has added refinement to his repertoire making dancing
look easy and effortless, always in control and never rushed. The best I
have seen him dance.
He was matched by Céline Gittens who is a
delightful Juliet, first as a giggly teenager, then showing her despair
at the proposed marriage to Paris (Feargus Campbell) arranged by her
father, Lord Capulet (Jonathan Payn).
We see her joy at her dangerous romance and
secret wedding to Romeo, a Montague, creating a union of two families at
war. Then the desolation as she awakes from her self-induced coma to
find her Romeo dead beside her
Romeo and Juliet whether play, ballet, or even
West Side Story, depends upon the relationship between the teen
lovers.
In the play the key moment is when Romeo first
sees Juliet, ending with
Did my heart love till now? forswear it,
sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
That is the moment when the stage is set, when
the pair have to carry us with them.
In the ballet the key moment is the balcony scene
and choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s beautiful pas de deux.
But it is not just a dance, the pair have to make
us believe in them and their love or the rest is lost, it becomes just
dance, and Lawrence and Gittens did not disappoint in a joyous dance in
the moonlight, with their passion confirmed after their night of
consummation with another joyful duet before, finally, we have the
tragic pas de morte as Romeo finds what he believes is his dead Juliet
in the family crypt.
Fussing around Juliet is the nurse, played by
rising star Ruth Brill, a first artist with a growing reputation as a
choreographer She bustles about in a very matronly and delightfully
homely character performance.
From the seedier end of Verona we also get the
three harlots, danced by Yvette Knight, Maureya Lebowitz and Delia
Mathews, who join Romeo and his friends Mercutio, danced by Tzu-Chao
Chou and Benvolio, Yasuo Atsji, in some crowd pleasers.
Céline Gittens as Juliet and Brandon
Lawrence as Romeo. Picture: Nick Pate
Then there are the warring families. In West
Side Story it is the Jets and Sharks, here the Montagues and
Capulets with some stirring fight scenes Errol Flynn would be proud off,
and with a body count high enough to keep the local undertaker in
luxury.
The Capulet’s self appointed enforcer, with
a hair trigger, or in this case, sword, is Tybalt with Rory Mackay
turning in a nicely evil performance
A glance is all it needs to start a fight between
the somewhat psycho Tybalt and Romeo’s friend Mercutio, with Tybalt,
sneakily thrusting his sword through his opponent as he spoke to Romeo
with his back turned, which, even in the 1300s, was hardly seen as
sporting behavour.
Mercutio is mortally wounded and sets about dying
. . . and dying . . . and dying . . . any longer and he would have still
been breathing his last as the next performance started!
Romeo, in a rage of vengeance, fights and kills
Tybalt, who does the decent thing and dies a bit quicker – people in the
audience have trains to catch after all -
The Prince, Escalus, a regal appearance by ballet
master Dominic Antonucci, had already warned the two families to make
peace and confiscated their swords – so that went well then – and now,
with the latest transgression, Romeo is banished – setting in train the
tragic events.
Unaware that Juliet is now Mrs Montague her
family set about arranging her marriage to Paris, so in despair and
desperation she enlists the help of Friar Laurence (Wolfgang Stollwitzer
– who also plays Lord Montague) who gives her a potion to feign death –
which works a treat, even it doesn’t say much for the Capulet’s doctor.
Romeo does not get the message though, so, like
everyone else, he believes she is dead and enters the crypt to make sure
it is true, then, distraught, kills himself.
Juliet awakes, finds both him dead and a dagger .
. . and the tragedy is complete
Shakespeare’s classic love story works on many
levels, lovers from warring sides, be it black and white, protestant and
catholic, Muslim and Jew, or, as West Side Story had it,
Polish-American and Puerto Rican – which perhaps is why it still
resonates with so many people 400 years on.
With such a well-known story, as a ballet it is
pure emotion, a classic story in dance helped by Prokofiev’s sweeping
score, including the recurring theme of the dramatic Dance of the
Knights, as usual played with glorious colour and depth by the
Royal Ballet Sinfonia under BRB Music Director,Koen Kessels.
The setting, by Paul Andrews, is pure Italian
Renaissance, with the rich golds and browns found in paintings of the
time along with costumes, in rich velvets.
John B. Read’s lighting is muted, to give a hint
of gold, lighting, once again reminiscent of paintings of the period.
A classic love story, beautifully danced . . .
what more could you ask for. To 28-06-18
Roger Clarke
26-06-18
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