Romeo and Juliet - RSC

Will have to be good to beat that RSC one with the dancing and the sticks that I know you were a big admirer of. 

No sticks but some dancing, young people style. I’ve never thought of R& J as a young person's play. It is the old who can put a stop to it and in fact old Capulet nearly succeeds in stopping Tybalt and Tybalt here is definitely of an age to know better. 
Some odd directorial decisions in this. Juliet's big speeches spoiled imo by ghost Tybalt looming on to the stage. Mercutio is a tough girl and this almost works. Her Queen Mab speech almost works. The basic story played out very well, nice meeting of the lovers, nice balcony scene, nice fights, nice deaths. Juliet has a Scottish accent, probably as she is Scottish and so her mother here has a Scottish accent, don’t know if she is really Scottish or not. But it was odd. Was it to be 'inclusive' or what? Mercutio was Street and everyone else spoke like the usual RSC with Romeo having short vowels on occasions. One of the minor male characters spoke with a West Indian accent. That I’m saying all this shows you what a distraction it was. Actually Tybalt spoke the lines most naturally. It looked a bit of a strain for some of them. 

The RSC did the Tender Thing few years back with Richard McCabe and Kathryn Hunter which was them as middle aged u think.

The old age home idea sounds brilliant.

Saw the transfer last night at the Barbican.

One of the best seats in the house, Row F centre, picked up the day before when TodayTix quietly discounts them (to £15 in this case).

A seat is only as good as its neighbours though and this definitely picks up some of the worse. Quite a few people around checking phones and taking photos (to the extent that a manager had to come over and speak to the entire section at the end of the interval and threaten removal). Woman next to me with her right to sit on her coat with it going into my seat (my passive aggressive move was to reposition it during the interval, only for her to move it back when she returned).

Then the worst thing. Man in front, rather large, older gentleman. Ended up with three seats. Moved to the middle one, where he could not sit still. Then proceeded to stretch both arms over the seats next to him, including behind into my space. Touched the young woman in the seat two down (he still seemed oblivious). Managed to get my leg at one point. Took his shoes off and his toes must have been under an inch away from the person in front. Not sure how many seats he thought he paid for, but really ruined everyone's enjoyment.

Quite a few empty seats around.

There was a school party (all girls) in, but thankfully they were well behaved, until Romeo died (hope that isn't a spoiler), someone laughed loudly and that set them (and others) off too.

Onto the show. This was my first ever Romeo and Juliet (may have read the script it in the distant past) and I kept picking up where West Side Story had taken its inspiration from.

As others have said, the staging is minimal, with a large cube, open at two sides which rotates and occasional use of ladders to get actors to the top.

Children appeared at the start and end and spoke, but were pretty much inaudible. I presume they were from a local school. A few of the other cast members didn't project well so I'm glad I wasn't further back.

There was loud modern music at several points, which I presume was played live as a conductor came on stage during the bows. Also, sound pumped in surround, which didn't help with hearing the quieter actors. A terrible modern rave style scene as well.

This is all ethnicity blind casting with similar looking modern day dress (and lots of knifes, presumably as a social commentary on knife crime). The overall look does make it a bit hard to follow who is playing what and associated with whom.

Bally Gill as Romeo was memorable. Easy to look at, overacted the part, but had good stage presence. No real other standouts, although I did find the portrayal of Mercutio annoying.

Started at 7:15pm, ended at 10pm, one interval.

I did enjoy it, but would have enjoyed it more with better surrounding company.

Go. The Barbican seats are comfortable enough for a mid-show nap if you need it.

I'm sure the rave music would have woken you up!

Enjoyed this, worth a look if you can get a cheap seat. Modern setting with gangs and knives worked well. Juliet looked convincingly teenage (surprised to see when I checked later that the actor is actually mid-20s) and her mother also looked the correct age (ie about 28) so it sold the idea that she'd been married very young to an older (and it was implied in this staging) abusive partner and the same was happening to her daughter.

Enjoyed the Nurse's performance which was highly reminiscent of the late Hylda Baker (one for the teenagers there!)

As usual though with most of these RSC transfers hard to see what they think will attract a London audience to pay £60 for a very unstarry cast - you'd pay the same for the Ralph and Sophie show at the National.

Just checked and in both cases it was Ishia Bennison. So perhaps she just happens to be very similar to Hylda.

Hylda Baker? How old are you guys? Her career was finished 40 years ago.

This discussion immediately made me think of this: