Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe star in Robert Icke’s production of Shakespeare’s tragic love story. Here’s what critics have been saying about the production.
The Guardian: *** “What makes the production effective, ultimately, in spite of the overbearing directorial stamp, are the two central performances. Sink makes for an intense teenager, quirkily neurotic, who brings comedy to the balcony scene. She is so strong a presence that Juliet at times seems the play’s central protagonist. Jupe’s Romeo is dramatically mopey in his unrequited love for Rosaline at the start, and earnest in his passion for Juliet. They have a sweet, pure chemistry that encapsulates the urgent and uncompromising nature of first love, so absolute in its adolescent ardour that it is worth dying for. Both speak the verse without straining for effect, too.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** Clare Perkins is a stoic, often funny, cockney Nurse, and Kasper Hilton-Hille steals almost every scene he is in as a naughty, provocative Mercutio, goading Tybalt with cat noises and shaking his bottom suggestively. There is good work too from supporting actors such as Jamie Ankrah (as Peter) and Lewis Shepherd (Paris), the latter looking like he has walked straight out of a Zara spring/summer collection in Bechtler’s modern-dress costume designs.”
Theatre & Tonic: **** “Overall, Icke has created an extremely impressive and contemporary revival of Shakespeare’s tragic love story. Although it may not be the most traditional, it offers some new viewpoints of the show, which is extremely difficult for a play that has had more retellings than anyone could count. Although it may lose some of the original’s impact it is overall an impressive piece of theatre, not least to the impeccable cast and their performances. It perhaps doesn’t quite hit the mark in the way it hopes, but nonetheless is an enjoyable evening of theatre.”
Time Out: **** “If Icke and cast capture the enormity of Romeo and Juliet’s love – the most famous fictional couple in history – they don’t romanticise it. Sink is a clever, quick-witted Juliet who talks with a fierce intelligence: obviously she speaks in rarified Shakespearean verse but there is a sense she can speak so beautifully and feel so much because she is so smart. At the same time she petulantly bawls out her Nurse (Clare Perkins) and carries a knife with her that she repeatedly threatens to use on herself when things look like they’re going south.”
British Theatre Guide: “Sadie Sink’s Juliet reminds us that this is Juliet’s play, and that Shakespeare created a character not just for all time, but for our time too.”
The Arts Desk: **** “You listen anew to the Nurse’s swagger when she remarks that she will “take down (how modern is that?) anyone who speaks against her, and Clare Perkins’s sassy way with that gift of a role has the desired scene-stealing effect. For myself, I was especially taken with the three-way bromance – or is it? – between Romeo, his cousin Benvolio (in Dylan Corbett-Bader’s expert performance, this play’s Horatio), and the luxuriantly spoken, if madcap, Mercutio.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “It’s a production full of closely observed detail, that refuses to take any element of the heady story for granted. If it isn’t quite up there with Icke’s best, that’s only because he has set the bar so high.”
The Telegraph: **** “The only thing this production needs to alert you to is that Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink is so commanding as Juliet it will make you cry.”
The Stage: **** “Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe are poignant in Robert Icke’s sliding-doors take on Shakespeare’s tragedy.”
West End Best Friend: **** “This tense, fraught and frequently stark production is punctuated by joy, warmth and humour – powered by the youthful energy of its lead performers. A gem of a show and an inventive and insightful adaptation of a classic.”
Romeo and Juliet continues to play at the Harold Pinter Theatre until the 20th June.