Romeo and Juliet

I'd never seen a professional production of Romeo and Juliet before. Schools, yes. Amateur, yes. The Baz Luhrmann film version, many times. My motivation for picking this particular one was the involvement of Neil Bartlett as director and James Clyde as Friar Lawrence. Neither disappointed.

But above and beyond the wonderful and innovative direction, I completely fell in love with both the leads. It was so, so lovely to see Romeo and Juliet played in a way that I could genuinely believe that they were both a couple of giddy teenagers. From his CV, David Dawson (Romeo) must be at least 27 or 28 but managed the balance of wide eyed naivety and his rush to grow up so wonderfully. He completely stole the show for me.

The supporting cast were fabulous (with the notable exception of Eva Magyar as Lady Capulet, whose own accent was so thick I could barely understand a word she was saying) - particularly Owain Arthur as Peter.

The only moment that came a little close to spoiling the evening for me was nothing to do with the production itself, but with the woman sat a few seats down the row for me, who whispered (very loudly), as Juliet awoke to find Romeo dead, 'ooooh, is she alive now then?'. Gads above.