Romeo & Juliet - The Stage

When Oscar Wilde said youth was wasted on the young, no pair could have fitted the bill more than Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This impetuous pair storm through a roller coaster romance that, in their case, is not merely wasted but doomed.

Catherine Lake makes an enchanting Juliet, giving a rounded and credible performance as this precocious 14-year-old in love with Romeo and railing against an arranged marriage to Paris. With emotions swinging from child-like impatience and coquettish flirtation to abject despair, Lake takes us through the emotional lexicon of her awakening womanhood.

Wesley Griffith is a boisterous Romeo bursting with passion in an energetic performance that includes a bout of inconsolable hysteria at the news of Juliet’s demise. Rebecca Hulbert gives the part of Juliet’s mother a hard edge as matriarch, then impressively plays laddish Mercutio as an affable, posturing wide-boy. Jason Squibb does well juggling three roles, delivering a restrained and socially awkward Paris, dim-witted and dithery odd-job man Peter and Benvolio. Ben Dyson brings a welcome light pantomime dame touch to the part of Nurse.

At this performance, Dominic Power stepped in to read the part of Old Capulet and the priest. Power, who delivered his lines with impressive gravitas, replaced injured actor Steve Jacobs and is likely to play the part for the remainder of the tour. Designed as an open-air theatre experience performed around a simplistic set, Torquay was one of the few indoor venues on the tour.

The play took a while to get into its stride, with some slow time between scenes, but this six-hander, adapted and directed by Bill Scott, was a praiseworthy ensemble production.

Roger Malone