Romeo and Juliet

The Skakespeare’s story is so beautiful lovely story also dramatic 🎭 and tragic. We loved the intensivity of the players acting out. We liked that very much.:).

Robert Icke’s Romeo & Juliet is undeniably a beautifully crafted production. From the first moments, the staging establishes a tense, cinematic atmosphere: sharp lighting, carefully controlled pacing, and a visual language that constantly signals intelligence and precision. The production often looks stunning. Jon Clark’s lighting design in particular gives the play an eerie, almost haunted quality that elevates several scenes beyond conventional Shakespearean revival. What works best here is the dramaturgy. Icke clearly understands rhythm, tension, and theatrical architecture. Scenes transition fluidly, and the production rarely loses structural momentum. Even when the interpretation risks becoming overly stylised, it remains theatrically coherent. And yet, despite all this technical sophistication, the evening rarely lands with genuine emotional force. The central problem lies in the performances - especially the leads. While there are isolated moments of vulnerability and tenderness, the emotional core of the play never fully opens up. The production feels meticulously directed rather than deeply lived. Juliet, in particular, often comes across as mannered. Certain gestures and emotional inflections feel externally imposed rather than organically arising from the character. Instead of emotional immediacy, there is a sense of performance-consciousness: one becomes aware of the acting rather than absorbed by it. The same issue affects the production more broadly. Again and again, scenes build toward intensity only to flatten before they truly break through. The tragedy is intellectually framed, visually sophisticated, but emotionally distant. One admires the production more than one feels devastated by it. That is not to say the evening lacks merit. On the contrary: this is a highly competent, often visually impressive reinterpretation of Shakespeare. But theatre ultimately lives or dies through emotional transmission, and here the production remains oddly untouching. Icke’s Romeo & Juliet is a strikingly staged tragedy that is easier to admire than to surrender to.

Really fantastic show. Lovely to see the theatre full with teenagers - this is a great advert for theatre.

I loved this version of one of the world’s greatest classic. The cast is perfect and the two protagonists nailed it. I would recommend it to everyone!

Great acting by the two leads. Was not sure if some of the directorial choices at the start but it got better and better. Really great staging at the end!

Look somewhere else for non-brilliant things; for this is not one of them. Hypnotised by humour, an east-end nurse and a bombastically-brilliant bare-cheeked Mercutio so simply-sophisticatedly set that you wander willingly astray down the path of the love, in a play - playing here on chance and ‘Sliding Doors’ alternatives delivered somehow straight to your cerebral cortex without barrier of the bard- so much so, that it is only in retrospect that you realise you have been taken too far; arrested by the astounding acting, not just (‘just’!) of Sadie’s Juliet, that maybe, just maybe there is a happy ever after…dare…you…believe? You do believe. My fourteen, astounded, Tom & Zen are the second-best thing she saw that evening. My twelve, selling the play to his mates as, “pretty cool,” as we try to walk off its enthralling effect, all equally loquacious with it all, late night strolling through Leicester Square with no direction nor destination when we should be in bed. Mother, my eighty-year-old mother, a retired and reserved English teacher, has seen ‘hundreds of productions’ both in Stratford and London of most all of his plays, with stars of screen before, said it was still hard to shake off the next day. “Was this the best - Shakespeare [not just R&J] production you have ever seen?” standing outside afterwards. No pause, hesitation, qualification. “Yes”. This is one of the best - things - you will see. Ever ever.

The show was very well acted and continually kept my attention.

The actors were amazing, but i didn't enjoy the interpretation of the play. My 16-yr old daughter was upset by how much the play was different f4om the original. But the performance reminded me and made me think about the value of human lives, feelings and unnecessary life demands and traditions that we are expected to satisfy at the high cost to ourselves.