Because the male lead entered the stage in a brand new manufacturing of “Romeo and Juliet” in London, a single, very loud whoop erupted from the orchestra stage. No one else joined in — that is Britain, in spite of everything — however the breach of decorum was telling. This explicit Romeo is the big-screen famous person Tom Holland, of “Spider-Man” fame, and his pulling energy helped tickets for this present’s run promote out inside hours — regardless that the actor taking part in Juliet wasn’t forged till many weeks later.
But this “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sundown Boulevard,” “The Impact”) and working on the Duke of York’s Theater via Aug. 3, is not any easy crowd-pleaser. The visuals are stripped-down and the staging unconventional; as an alternative of indulging the giddy melodrama of younger love, the emphasis is on brooding atmospherics. The present is slickly executed by a gifted forged and manufacturing crew, however its understated rendering of the lovers’ romantic infatuation could go away some theatergoers wanting extra.
The stage is darkish, and fully naked aside from an indication that asserts the setting in chunky capitals: VERONA. The performers, in monochrome streetwear, are illuminated by hazy spotlights. (Set design and costumes are by Soutra Gilmour.) In a number of scenes, they converse from fastened positions, stationed behind microphone stands, typically going through the viewers moderately than one another. The gloomy visuals are complemented by snatches of ambient techno and a boring buzzing sound that conjures a way of anticipatory dread. To maintain the viewers on its toes, some scene modifications are punctuated by blinding lights and obnoxiously loud flashbulb clacks. (The sound is by Ben and Max Ringham, the lighting by Jon Clark.)
The minimalist staging places an additional onus on the actors to make the script shine, they usually don’t disappoint. Holland provides a managed efficiency as Romeo, evoking the halting, hopeful awkwardness of a love-struck teenager with understatement. As Juliet, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is equally restrained: Tentative and inscrutable through the early part of the courtship, she is at her greatest within the scenes wherein she stands as much as her father, Lord Capulet (Tomiwa Edun) as he pressures her to interrupt it off with Romeo. In these moments, Amewudah-Rivers — who’s making her West Finish debut — shows an impregnable abstractedness that rings true to the cussed willpower of adolescence.
The supporting forged can be much less skilled than the illustrious main man, however for probably the most half, you wouldn’t comprehend it. Edun convinces because the hectoring, overbearing patriarch. Freema Agyeman performs the Nurse, the affable go-between who permits the lovers’ forbidden affair, with a positive mix of sassy assertiveness and quasi-maternal tenderness. Ray Sesay’s Tybalt is impressively menacing and Nima Taleghani, along with his wide-eyed and mild bearing, is tenderly protecting as Romeo’s trusty pal, Benvolio.
At occasions the spectacle feels extra like a studying than a play, however some nifty camerawork injects dynamism. A digicam operator intermittently seems onstage and movies close-up footage of an actor’s face, which is relayed in actual time onto a display screen above the stage. This system — acquainted from the work of administrators comparable to Ivo van Hove and Christine Jatahy — can typically really feel frustratingly gratuitous, resulting in a way of visible muddle, however it feels easy right here. Throughout some scenes, actors are filmed elsewhere within the theater — in its lobby bar, corridors and balcony — whereas others occupy the stage. This provides a becoming sense of simultaneity in a story replete with back-channel dialogues and conspiratorial maneuverings.
Lloyd has tried to condense the story to its essence, simply as he did in his Olivier-winning tackle “Sundown Boulevard.” To this finish, one or two scenes — such because the finale wherein the Montagues and Capulets comply with put aside their variations after Romeo and Juliet’s deaths — have been abridged. The manufacturing’s suave subtlety is encapsulated within the tragic denouement, when the lovers’ deaths are conveyed just by Holland and Amewudah-Rivers eradicating their mics.
The restrained portrayal of the lovers’ ardour is aesthetically courageous, however there’s a draw back: In his willpower to eschew the straightforward charms of melodrama, Lloyd barely undercooks the romance, which in flip diminishes our funding in its horrible ramifications. There are different Shakespeare performs that lend themselves higher to this sort of high-concept therapy, as a result of they’re extra psychologically complicated. (A equally stylized “Macbeth,” staring David Tennant, which ran on the Donmar Warehouse final yr and can switch to the West Finish within the fall, involves thoughts.)
Leaving the theater, I encountered an excitable throng of principally younger followers hoping to catch a glimpse of Holland. His famous person standing will entice a mainstream viewers to this present. However what is going to they make of it? “Spider-Man” it most actually ain’t.
Romeo and Juliet
By means of Aug. 3 on the Duke of York’s Theater in London; thedukeofyorks.com.
