Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? Guildford, Actually…

Shakespeare…but in the city…of Guildford. From the billing I was expecting to move around venues in Guildford, including a real balcony, but we stayed firmly rooted to the bandstand in the Castle Gardens. The Castle Gardens are enigmatically signposted, but very helpful staff in the Guildford Museum next door will act as friendly tour guides to get you there. I’m not sure when the moving around the city aka Shakespeare in the streets happens as it’s definitely in the programme, but go anyway because the production is great, (whether static or on the move!) (Maybe just the evening performances and I missed the memo? — Yes I did as it turns out!!)

Anyhow, the ‘Venetian’ bandstand was great as it too had a balcony terrace and the cast fully utilised its potential for street brawls, dancing, romance and joy. Naturally too it formed a stage for the players. Also well utilised was colour — the Capulets and their supporters were all in green, and the Baz Luhrmann Romeo & Juliet soundtrack also featured prominently, enhancing the mood of scenes.

April Hughes and Christian James made a terrific Romeo and Juliet, with soaring rush of emotions and Juliet definitely the brains of the unit, planning to avoid an unwanted wedding, and come back to life to live a life of chosen love. David Carr was a kind and measured Friar Laurence. By being younger than usually cast, Emma Manton’s Nurse was more of an age equal with Lady Capulet (Laura Matthews), which made Lady Capulet more status conscious than usual and even more concerned that Juliet do as she was bid and marry up by wedding the Prince. Lord Capulet (Chris Porter) loved his daughter and was not the usual tyrannical bully — more concerned for her. His love of status came out in his sociability — getting everyone partying and up and dancing. Then the moment when he chose to use physical force to bend her to his will was all the more shocking — as it literally came out of nowhere. Laura Matthews doubled up as Tybalt, which jarred a bit — though this was notably a sword-free production, using fists instead.

All of this made the tragedy of finding Juliet apparently dead all the more moving — and what happens next to Romeo and Juliet all the more devastating. This particularly came through in the Nurse finding her charge deceased on her wedding day and rousing the household with her shocked screams — to the grief of her family.

Daniel Burke played a wonderfully extravagant Mercutio and Luke Latchman (Benvolio), along with Burke, brought some levity and comedy to proceedings. We also really got a sense of Mercutio, Benvolio and Romeo’s friendships before Juliet, and the joy of Romeo and Juliet meeting illegally at her family’s ball. And who can not love a high kicking Juliet celebrating her secret wedding and wedding night to come in her bedroom to the sound of Florence and the Machine’s ‘Dog Days Are Over’. At the same time we got a real sense of Juliet’s horror at being pushed into marrying the Prince — and her desperation to get out of it. Correspondingly her misery at waking to find that she’d been left behind by mistaken Romeo.

Burke’s Mercutio was both comedic and plaintive — his unfortunate death matched by his ironic speech. His charisma and disdain carried the day throughout the play.

Altogether, a really fresh version of Romeo and Juliet, using modernity to compelling effect and yet keeping the grounding sense of place and history. Though I still wanted to follow them round the streets and to a real balcony!

Afterwards, once you’ve found the impossibly hidden castle gardens, you can recover from all the tragedy and carnage by exploring the beautiful gardens and picturesque ruins with a view.

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