REVIEW: Romeo And Juliet (Abridged), St Martin's Colchester ✭✭✭✭✭

Romeo and Juliet (Abridged)

St. Martin’s Church, Colchester.

20 August 2016

5 Stars

As the main house entertains audiences with the final performances of the wonderful Wind in the Willows, the Young Company have taken up residence in the atmospheric St. Martin’s Church in Colchester. In this beautiful, innovative production of the play, the script is abridged and the audience promenade and it’s played by a terrific ensemble who convince with every line, every song, and every movement.

Part of the Made in Colchester season, director Filiz Ozcan uses every corner of the church, filling it with sound and music, (great work by musical director Matt Marks and the ensemble), and creating magical theatrical moments. Blood red confetti symbolises death, the mix of traditional and contemporary costumes make the play remain relevant, percussion underscores the fights and tension, and the play comes alive. As the leads, Peregrine Maturin-Baird and Ivy Dillon are both excellent- I honestly think they are the first Romeo and Juliet I have ever believed in. Cast gender blind, Sophie Chivers is an excellent Friar Lawrence and Freya Leslie a wonderfully arrogant Mercutio, especially calling down a plague on both their houses. Special mention must go to Charlotte Luxford’s superb Lady Capulet, heartbreaking in her grief, with Richard Hornsby a powerful Capulet- the real villain of the piece?

Occasionally the acoustics of the church mitigate against some of the dialogue, and the singing of the chorus sometimes began a little nervously. During the run, however, these details will be ironed out. The ensemble are totally committed, not a weak link in the chain, focussed from every angle of the church, which the director understands is an extra character in this production, and the technical team excel themselves. Performed at a confident pace, the final altar scene, played out under pages of the play hanging above the protagonists in Rhiannan Howell and David Thomas’s beautiful set design, the draft of the church gently moving shadows over the young lovers, is deeply moving. If you have tears to shed, prepare to shed them for this Romeo and Juliet.

Photos: Robert Day

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