Romeo And Juliet - Almeida

[Dave B]

June 6 - July 29

Toheeb Jimoh and Isis Hainsworth star, directed by Rebecca Frecknall

deadline.com/2023/03/ted-lasso-toheeb-jimoh-romeo-and-juliet-isis-hainsworth-london-1235301049/

[zahidf]

this could be great!

[zahidf]

Public sale 28th March

[n1david]

I wasn't sure I was up for another R&J but with Frecknall directing and interesting casting I'm there. I'm a big fan of Ted Lasso but TBH had not seen Toheeb Jimoh as a Romeo...

[theatrelover123]

NO. MORE. ROMEO. AND. JULIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[starlight92]

Mar 16, 2023 13:49:06 GMT theatrelover123 said:

NO. MORE. ROMEO. AND. JULIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

😂😂😂😂😂

[theatrelover97]

I have tickets for this but am returning them as the person I was going with has declined to go and I cant go alone for a couple of reasons.

[Mark]

2 hours no interval!
Very well paced. Very typical Fracknall production, but I liked it. Good performances from everyone.

[kate8]

Very good reviews for this. Mostly 4 stars (Guardian, Stage, WoS, Standard) and a couple of 5s (i and Telegraph).

[alessia]

Going tomorrow, this is good to see!

[Deleted]

She certainly likes her musical underscoring and flourishes.

[cavocado]

I saw this last night and liked it. Isis Hainsworth was particularly good - capricious and touching.

Two hours felt right. It's fast-paced, sometimes overlapping whole scenes, e.g. the scenes in Act 3 between Romeo and Friar Lawrence and Juliet and the Nurse are played at the same time with all 4 on stage and quickly alternating between each pair speaking. There were very quick transitions between scenes, with characters often dropping to the floor at the end of their scene as the next scene starts around them, also some longer dance/movement sections to the R&J ballet music. That controlled movement heightened the sense of everything else spinning more and more out of control. 

Minimal design, beautifully lit, but strangely unattractive costumes. The young men were in a range of different styles including one-shouldered waistcoats and ragged cut off trousers, and Isis Hainsworth in what looked like a man's doublet from a different play, baggy shorts and knee socks - very unflattering, like kids had raided the dressing up box. Maybe that was the point - these are very young people who can barely even manage to get dressed in clothes that fit/suit them, never mind cope rationally with the simmering feud engulfing their families? 

I suppose I should add a spoiler for the end

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
It ends abruptly with Juliet's suicide, and the rest of the cast, who have been placing candles at the back of the stage, slowly walk to the front for their curtain call. No real resolution, just a feeling that this violence could go on and on. I'm not sure how that would feel if I didn't know that there's another version of the play where the loose ends are tied up. But I doubt anyone in the audience could avoid thinking of all the senseless violence we hear about on a daily basis, so perhaps this abrupt ending better reflects the world we're in at the moment.

[alessia]

I thought this was incredible. Despite having booked the seat directly behind a pillar by mistake (duh) I loved it and didn’t feel I had to move my head too much around it. I have seen the play or read it so many times, and yet this version cleverly made it so fresh. Didn’t think it would make me cry but it did. Loved the two young leads (they both really acted it as teenagers) but Jack Riddiford was even better than either of them as Mercutio. Loved it.

[NeilVHughes]

alessia seconded.

I adored this production, a play that more often bores than entertains, this production was a breath of fresh air.

Juliet encapsulated the impatience and impetuosity of youth and for me was exceptional.

Never seen so many with tears in their eyes as they left and the ending as per earlier spoiler is inspired.

[lynette]

Jun 17, 2023 16:44:37 GMT NeilVHughes said:

alessia seconded.

I adored this production, a play that more often bores than entertains, this production was a breath of fresh air.

Juliet encapsulated the impatience and impetuosity of youth and for me was exceptional.

Never seen so many with tears in their eyes as they left and the ending as per earlier spoiler is inspired.

I’m pleased about this but for me, too late! I’m giving R&J a miss. 
Re spoiler, sounds excellent. 

[foxa]

I was there this afternoon too. I had originally hesitated to book because I have seen SO MANY productions of R&J, but I really admire Frecknall's work so...And it was really good.

Thought Isis Hainsworth as cavocado says was particularly good - familiar lines suddenly very fresh, always engaging. But also agree the costumes, particularly hers, with the knee highs and unflattering jacket and skirt weren't great. Just didn't get that choice beyond making her look very young. Ditto Lady Capulet's outfit.

The movement was outstanding. Thought Mercutio was fresh and fascinating.

If you know the play well, there were LOTS of cuts, including whole characters and a key plot point (I have forgotten how to do spoilers so won't say more than that.)

This would be a perfect play to bring teenagers to - or anyone who thought they didn't like Shakespeare. It might convince them otherwise.

[alexandra]

Thanks cavocado for not spoiling even in your spoiler the particular tragedy of the ending, which I’ve not seen done like that before. Please don’t anyone else.

This is, mostly, excellent. Take your teenagers, they’ll love it. Oh and I loved the costumes, especially Romeo’s frilly shirt. Took me back to my New Romantic days.

[matty]

Saw this tonight and really enjoyed it, but what I didn't like was the temperature in the Almeida. I was very uncomfortable up in the circle and 2 hours is loooong when there's no interval and it's that hot - surely they can blast some air con on days like today?

[nash16]

Also saw it up in the Circle, last week, and agree with Matty that it was uncomfortably hot.

That may have affected my enjoyment, but I really felt this was poor. Unfortunately as soon as the Romeo started talking I feared the worst. There was no connection to what he was saying, or most of them early on, it was just being spoken very very fast. I knew the running time was finally the “two hours traffic” but I think that was a mistake with the cuts and the lack of time to let any relationships truly build or fall.

What were those dance/movement sequences? Deary me.

Paul Higgins and the experienced actors nearly saved it.

But even the youngsters around us, whom this is presumably aimed at, were restless and not, for the most part, engaged with it.

It felt very high school standard.

A misfire for Frecknall.

[tmesis]

Phew nash16 I thought this was only me. Saw the Saturday matinee from a well air-conned seat in the stalls but hated it. Way too quick and superficial and desperately trying to be cool. I didn’t engage with either Romeo or Juliet. In the latter part I thought Isis Hainsworth was particularly poor in the final death scene with unbelievable over-acting.

I also thought it lazy of Frecknall to use so much of Prokofiev’s music and let it do so much of the emotional heavy lifting.

[Being Alive]

I actually really liked this.

Found it super accessible but not at sacrifice to the material. We had a school group early last week and they didn't make a sound so evidently absorbed in it. It was the first time for a while I thought a Shakespeare felt like it was written in current English, not from 400 years ago.

Liked a lot of the cast - Juliet took until act 2 for me to connect but I loved all of the R&J stuff. Both Friar and Nurse good too which I find rare.

Liked the choreo a lot and thought it very clever. Didnt like that the music was the theme to the apprentice though!

Strong 4 stars from me, Frecknall doesn't miss.

[bordeaux]

I've returned a row B seat for next Monday if anyone needs one.

[Jan]

Jun 23, 2023 11:42:29 GMT tmesis said:

Phew nash16 I thought this was only me. Saw the Saturday matinee from a well air-conned seat in the stalls but hated it. Way too quick and superficial and desperately trying to be cool. I didn’t engage with either Romeo or Juliet. In the latter part I thought Isis Hainsworth was particularly poor in the final death scene with unbelievable over-acting.

I also thought it lazy of Frecknall to use so much of Prokofiev’s music and let it do so much of the emotional heavy lifting.

#MeToo

It was like the Classic FM Hall of Fame Two Hours - a fringe production cheap music option. 

Agree mostly with the negative comments, for me doing it in two hours with loads of cuts emphasises the plot at the expense of the characters, you don't get enough time to emotionally connect and care about them - particularly so for supporting characters like the Nurse who was quite poorly done here. But having decided to do it that way why spend so much time on The Dancing ? What was the point of it ? For a start it looked like a direct lift from a Carrie Cracknell production. It's a Brechtian device because it periodically lets you know that these are not real characters but just a bunch of actors pretending, so again it's emotionally very distancing. Also under that heading, no blood, not even the black variety she used in Duchess of Malfi. Why not ? 

I liked Jamie Ballard, and the candles at the end (but in the Simon Godwin production for NT which was only released on-line wasn't similar staging used ?)

A youthful audience in the Circle but three separate groups of 2-3 left at different times during the performance necessitating lots of disturbance. Also, listen up Almeida - if you say a show is going to start at 19:30 then please start it then rather than at 19:43 simply to accommodate latecomers.  

3* from me. 

[bordeaux]

I loved this last night. Fast, clear, superbly acted. I loved the use of dance/music - the Prokofieve is superb, of course. Went with a daughter who has just done it for GCSE and she too was wowed by the whole thing.

My one question or cavil may reveal a certain prejudice in me, but why did Juliet have a slight west country rural accent if she is from a posh family? It's the sort of accent you might find in a comic character in As You Like It, say. I can see that if we're being race-blind in our casting we should be able to be accent-deaf too but I did notice it and it took me out of the action. It may be the (excellent) actress's normal accent, of course, but are we entering an era in which even doing accents is frowned upon or simply regarded as unnecessary?