We round up the reviews for Ola Ince’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
iNews: ** “But while Ola Ince’s passionate but ultimately crude reinvention makes an admirable attempt to say something new, it obliterates the play’s nuance in the process.”
The Guardian: **** “This is a high-stakes rewiring of Romeo and Juliet with so much energy and cleverness at play that the romance is barely missed at all.”
London Theatre.co.uk: ** “The text itself has been so chopped to smithereens that one clings on to certain lines as if to a life raft, especially in light of the competition posed by modern-day precepts on the order of “it is dangerous for women to go outside alone.””
Mind the Blog: **** “As the title characters, Alfred Enoch & Rebekah Murrell are excellent; this is a socially distanced production, which obviously comes with some restrictions, but they don’t need to get up close & personal to demonstrate their bond.”
The Upcoming: *** “Reservations aside, the re-staging does ultimately encourage a reconsideration of this very well-known play. “Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things,” the prince advises at the tragedy’s grim resolution. In its best moments, this production provides such lines with pertinent weight and wisdom.”
Culture Whisper: **** “Ince delivers a Romeo & Juliet that speaks to a contemporary audience of all ages but especially the young.”
Time Out: “Essentially Ince’s desire to offer up two hours of hard-hitting social realism and two hours of wild escapist fantasy at the same time is not entirely reconcilable.”
Evening Standard: *** “Alfred Enoch and Rebekah Murrell make sweetly convincing lovers in this pared-back, insightful but uneven production by Ola Ince.”
The Arts Desk: ** “”It is dangerous for women to go outside alone,” blares the electronic sign above the stage of the new Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe. This disquieting sentiment obviously takes some of its resonance from the Sarah Everard case, yet it also begs such questions as, really, always? When popping out to get milk? Does the time of day or the neighbourhood make any difference?”
The Telegraph: *** “Call me old-fashioned but I had always thought that Romeo and Juliet was about young love, and its blazing, take-no-prisoners intensity. We may weep, finally, for the pair but we also look on in awe at their lushly poetic, death-defying ardency, don’t we?”
Romeo & Juliet continues to play at the Shakespeare’s Globe until the 17th October.