Star-crossed lovers in tough modern world
IW County Press review 18th November 2011. Sue Lupton)
Gang warfare, prejudice, drunkenness, sex, murder and suicide... RedTIE Theatre’s latest offering at Quay Arts had it all.
RedTIE has tackled all sorts of challenging themes, such as bestiality and youth violence, but the new production was not another hard-hitting contemporary drama.
It was Romeo and Juliet, but not as you know it. In true RedTIE style, directors John English and Helen Reading injected vast quantities of energy, relevance, pace, action, noise and rock music into Shakespeare’s saddest tragedy.
The play is currently a GCSE set work and the first-night audience included many school students.
The script had been elegantly condensed, although the Shakespearean language and significant speeches were retained.
From the off, the audience was drawn into the strife-torn town, where groups of gobby youths loitered on street corners, exchanging taunts and occasional blows.
Without exception, the cast gave intense, passionate performances. I found the leads, Henry Vince and Rhiain Lyne, so convincing as the doomed young lovers I had to hold back tears in the suicide scene.
I was not surprised to learn Henry Vince has just graduated from drama school; his performance had real star quality.
Rhiain Lyne has recently finished school and was making her first non-school stage debut.
It wasn’t only the youngsters who shone: the husky-toned Maggie Cardew was terrifying as Escales, the narrator, in very fetching jodh purs, boots and hacking jacket.
Helen Clinton-Pacey, one of the Island’s most accomplished and versatile mature actresses, made a doting nurse for Juliet.
The contrast between the nurse’s gentleness and the ruthlessness of Juliet’s shrewish mother, Lady Capulet (Helen Reading), was marked, although one of the most poignant moments was Lady Capulet’s collapse when she discovered her daughter apparently dead.
The entire cast deserves mention for their performances; my favourites were Sam Robertson as a very playful Mercutio and Dan Whitehead as the dapper Paris.
RedTIE has tackled all sorts of challenging themes, such as bestiality and youth violence, but the new production was not another hard-hitting contemporary drama.
It was Romeo and Juliet, but not as you know it. In true RedTIE style, directors John English and Helen Reading injected vast quantities of energy, relevance, pace, action, noise and rock music into Shakespeare’s saddest tragedy.
The play is currently a GCSE set work and the first-night audience included many school students.
The script had been elegantly condensed, although the Shakespearean language and significant speeches were retained.
From the off, the audience was drawn into the strife-torn town, where groups of gobby youths loitered on street corners, exchanging taunts and occasional blows.
Without exception, the cast gave intense, passionate performances. I found the leads, Henry Vince and Rhiain Lyne, so convincing as the doomed young lovers I had to hold back tears in the suicide scene.
I was not surprised to learn Henry Vince has just graduated from drama school; his performance had real star quality.
Rhiain Lyne has recently finished school and was making her first non-school stage debut.
It wasn’t only the youngsters who shone: the husky-toned Maggie Cardew was terrifying as Escales, the narrator, in very fetching jodh purs, boots and hacking jacket.
Helen Clinton-Pacey, one of the Island’s most accomplished and versatile mature actresses, made a doting nurse for Juliet.
The contrast between the nurse’s gentleness and the ruthlessness of Juliet’s shrewish mother, Lady Capulet (Helen Reading), was marked, although one of the most poignant moments was Lady Capulet’s collapse when she discovered her daughter apparently dead.
The entire cast deserves mention for their performances; my favourites were Sam Robertson as a very playful Mercutio and Dan Whitehead as the dapper Paris.
