 Wed 20 – Sat 23 April 2011
The Crescent Theatre
You may know the play, the ballet, the musical (West Side Story), some of the famous lines, but you wouldn’t expect how evil we made Capulet, how ‘most unlike in dignity’ the households were, how we explained Mercutio’s seemingly kamikaze attitude through his suffering of a fatal illness or how much impact was created by a cast of over 100 young people performing this powerful tale! It was also a wonderful last performance by Alex Butler who has now gone to Central School of Speech and Drama.
‘Yet again, this young group has been challenged to rise far above what in normal circumstances would be expectations, and it has met that challenge head-on.’... ‘Connor Fox and Priya Edwards are the star-cross’d lovers, splendid in their maturity, riveting in their fury and their dying – a pairing that bespeaks the quality that runs through the whole production, from its tragic centrepiece to its excellent young pages and maids’.... ‘overall, here is a team of all the talents, sublimely declining to put a foot or a syllable wrong and even investing the sword-fighting choreography designed by Wayne Fitzsimmons with a ration of realism that may well have exceeded his hopes…The production deserves, and receives, top-quality support from Chris Cuthbert’s lighting. The tomb scene is one that especially benefits from this, as the body-count increases and the lamentations become louder. But throughout, this is a venture that proclaims its own virtues. You don’t need subtitles to realise that you have stumbled on something special.’ John Slim, behindthearras.com
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