Review: MATTHEW BOURNE'S ROMEO & JULIET, Sadler's Wells

In Matthew Bourne’s dystopian take on the classic love story, there are leaps aplenty - and not just in the physical sense.

Romeo & Juliet, the last production from his New Adventures company before the pandemic, has been revived at Sadler’s Wells and sees the return of its leading pair Paris Fitzpatrick and Cordelia Braithwaite. Bourne’s masterstroke is, in his words, to “take the Shakespeare out of Shakespeare”: his conceptual jump retains some of the original’s plot points, gender-switches some of the characters and moves the setting from ye olde Verona to the shiny modern Verona Institute, a type of borstal prison containing a cadre of white-clad young inmates and their gaolers. 

We first meet Romeo when his politician parents place him in the institute. While hanging out with his chromatically-challenged colleagues, he falls for the flame-haired free spirit Juliet; in a dark turn, she is seen being assaulted by one of the guards Tybalt (a superbly sinister Danny Reubens). Romeo soon befriends Benvolio and Mercutio as well as the latter’s boyfriend Balthasar. Paris (Juliet’s suitor in the play) is replaced by devoted friend Frenchie while Friar Laurence becomes The Reverend Bernadette Laurence. 

Fitzpatrick and Braithwaite have already worked together in Bourne’s two London shows last year, an updated version of The Car Man and the welcome return of Sleeping Beauty on its 10th anniversary. It’s no huge surprise then to expect - and be rewarded by - a confident display of deeply sensuous chemistry between the pair. One magnificent scene sees them dance around each other and the multi-level stage while passionately lip-locked, an inspired piece of choreography which beautifully illustrates the other-worldly power of young love. 

New Adventures’ set wizard Lez Brotherston once again comes up trumps with a simple but powerful statement of a stage design. A semi-circular white-tiled wall is the chilling backdrop to scenes which range from disturbing acts of violence and ugly displays of homophobic bullying to an orgiastic disco. His all-white costume designs and pale reflective background provide light designer Paule Constable with an unusually blank canvas on which to draw us into the narrative.

Sergei Prokofiev’s famous 1935 score is twisted this way and that by the company’s Associate Artist Terry Davies’s new arrangement but still provides the lyrical backbone pulling Romeo & Juliet’s sharp dramatic shifts back into recognisable territory. Davies’ approach is touchingly intimate, relying heavily on solos and subtle playing to interpret this work’s more sensitive scenes. While Prokofiev initially wanted a happy ending for the lovers, the final tragedy shown here is all the more poignant for the touching orchestration.

Bourne’s treatment of Shakespeare’s classic work - eschewing the concept of two opposing sides, setting the drama in a new time and location, gender-switching some key characters and giving others like Tybalt and the senior Montagues new roles - raises questions over just how far one can move away from an original play while still retaining its name.

Some may argue that this wildly re-imagined version should live in its own creative space away from the Bard; others could reasonably opine (as Juliet did) that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo & Juliet continues at Sadler's Wells until 2 September.

Photo credit: Johan Persson