Romeo and Julie - Dorfman, National Theatre/Sherman Theatre

Yep, also going in March!

Look forward to hearing what you think.

Describe a new play in four words:
Dull. Banal. Inert. Cliché.

Wow. This was a slog, particularly the first act.

For a first preview, things were pretty polished, particularly given the timing some of the choreographed stage movement requires.

Not much of a set per se, but the National’s requisite(?) neon lighting and loud music during scene shifts is omnipresent. Somewhere Marianne Elliott was smiling tonight.

I’m just not sure how much better this will get given the rather weak raw material.

My colleague and I sensed Howells in particular could probably play his part in his sleep, but appreciated how layered his facial expressions and body language were. Honestly, I’m not sure the play really asks much of any of the actors.

Sat in the “pit,” Row C, smack in the center.

Oh dear- I booked this because it's by the same people that did Iphigenia in Splott which was great...

Ah yes I'll keep an open mind! 

Maybe I'll be the minority opinion, but I LOVED this tonight. It's of a piece with Gary Owen's other work, and Callum Scott Howells is as delightful as you could hope for. . .

Some spoilers follow. . .

This is set in Splott, just like "Iphigenia in Splott," and just as in that play, the adaptation of the original play referenced is extremely loose, similarly inserting recognisable, warm, witty, sardonic, self-sacrificing characters, suffering a storm of socioeconomic circumstances, into an updated modern plot.

The set was a bit too bleak for my liking, as, although I liked the "Constellations" style lights above the characters, which referenced symbols from physics (tying in with the Julie character's obsessions and field of study, as well as representing life's myriad possibilities), I was disturbed by the black background with a foregrounded pram, which put me in mind of the horrors of Edward Bond's "Saved."

I'm quite happy to be disturbed, of course, but in the context of so much comedic banter (Welsh working class bluntness comically undercutting highfalutin pretensions at every turn; and loveable youthful coyness then comically undercutting said bluntness, offering a double whammy of laughs, simultaneously amusing and heartwarming: in particular in Callum Scott Howells's beautifully judged performance, full of beat down experience leavened by blundering innocence), I found the bleak background scared some of the potential laughs right out of me.

Sure, the background does foreshadow an inevitable bleakness in the plot, but it overstates it, I feel: Gary Owen's attachment to some semblance of believable mundane reality doesn't allow for the full potential hell that that set puts in mind lol.

Anyway, apart from the scary bleak background, I felt the play is perfectly judged, blending it's damning message about constricted opportunities for the less well off, with a lovingly etched sense of specific people and places, and affording Callum Scott Howells with an opportunity to essay a memorable and utterly delightful character: the pursed hesitancy of his every expression speaks to an inner softness.

Rosie Sheehy's Julie is effortlessly empathetic and caustically blunt, and Howell's souse of a mother is superbly portrayed by Catrin Aaron, solid and slippery in equal measure, with a masterful comic timing in her line readings.

This is not as hard-hitting as Iphigenia, but it offers up a love story that is the pitch perfect blend of amusing and meaningful: all-round adorable.

4 stars from me.

I was also there last night, less enthusiastic than Steve sadly though the acting was very strong and especially Catrin Aaron as Romeo's mum.

I really hated the opening scene (and it needs to be trimmed massively) and was dreading that the whole piece was going to be in that vein. Luckily it settled down and the second half definitely improves things but like stevea above I just didn't find it compelling and it felt like a middle of the road ITV drama. 3 stars for me - and mainly down to the acting.

This seems to be dividing critics too - first two reviews I've seen are 5* in The Stage and 2* in BWW...

That BWW review is pretty harsh - calls an actor a 'theatre starlet' (? - does that mean her theatrical debut?) and criticises Howells' 'weird mouth acting' (also ?)
However, even with raves, this one is not for me as it just seems such a tired idea. How many times and ways has Romeo and Juliet been updated?

Can we have a poll, pretty please moderators?

Ooer! Cindy Marcolina must have got out of bed on the wrong side, got back in then did it again. Ouch!

I really enjoyed this last night. Great acting from all, Romy's mum drunk scene is a performance masterclass and the relationship between the teens is believable and sweet. I was so engrossed in the story that I never thought of the time- in the second half I got worried it would end v badly for the couple, as by then I really was caring for them! I had seen Rosie Sheehy in Oleanna and was impressed then, and she is equally good here. I was a bit cynical when she first meets Romy and she falls for him because what would a bright young woman see in him? However, you then see how genuinely selfless and good he is, as portrayed by Callum Scott Howells, how he really wants Julie to succeed at university (with no toxic/controlling tendencies, rare!). I've read the reviews including the 2 (2???) stars one, and yes, it is true that maybe it's not believable that Romy doesn't know the difference between Cardiff and Cambridge universities until Julie tells him, but then why would a teen from a poor family, who never finished school and certainly never thought of a university education, be interested to find out about those things? So yes maybe a bit unrealistic but not impossible. And Julie wanting to give it all up is not unbelievable as people do all sorts when infatuated, and they are both so young so even more likely to do silly things.
My seat wasn't great up in the circle on the side, but as all the action is at the front, you don't really miss anything. Recommended!