Reviews of Romeo & Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe in London

"Star-crossed lovers transported to the wild west"

"Director Sean Holmes’s high concept production might have been preposterous and, initially, the idea speaks louder than the play, but by turns it woos, bewitches and becomes irresistible."

"There is a blood-smear – as visual foreshadowing – at the back of Paul Wills’s incredibly handsome clapboard set, which has a Shaker-like simplicity"

"The comic bonhomie feels ungrounding at first but its heartiness does not grate against the central tragedy."

"It is not without its flaws: some actors declaim lines, flattening away the nuance. Rawaed Asde as Romeo certainly brings intensity but every line is spoken in the same determined tone, so that he seems perpetually incensed."

"It is also long – far closer to three hours than the two stated in the text. And yet you can’t begrudge it. The last hour is immaculate in its execution."

"Light touch and plenty of humour"

"Delightfully fresh Wild West take on Shakespeare’s tragedy"

"In a delightfully effective twist, he relocates the implacable rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets to the Wild West. From the moment that characters come swaggering through the swinging saloon doors of Paul Wills’ set, the macho posturing and gun-toting works as a great fit for a society in which the rule of law is flimsy and the threat of violence and death is always bubbling under the surface of any party."

"What Holmes establishes well, and early on, is that the inter-family warfare is a tragedy partly because it feels almost like a formality."

"The ensemble cast is endearing and charismatic, pitching the size of their performances nicely to match the jostle of the Globe. If some of the play’s darker depths are lost as Holmes mines its wit, the pay-off is a fresh take on certain characters that finds new avenues to the story’s well-trodden routes."

"A Wild West Romeo and Juliet kicks off the Globe’s summer season in style"

"A new setting for the star-crossed lovers smoulders with heat, dust and energy"

"“Fun” is not the word most readily associated with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But there’s a good deal of the stuff to be had in Sean Holmes’ new production for Shakespeare’s Globe."

"You become keenly aware of the youth of Rawaed Asde’s cheekily charming Romeo and Lola Shalam’s feisty, forthright Juliet — impulsive teenagers trapped in a small frontier town, keen to experience life, love and sex."

"Holmes is good at comedy in this space and uses that experience well here — Michael Elcock’s playful, rash Mercutio flirts with the crowd, Romeo hides himself among them. That sometimes comes at a cost, however. Holmes could afford to let some later scenes breathe for longer"

"... for all its breezy comic flair, this production potently brings to the fore the stark tragedy that five vibrant young human beings have lost their lives over a few days, each snuffed out in an instant."

"A fine start to a Shakespearean summer"

"Sean Holmes’s production sets the familiar story in a frontier town in the American West in the late 19th century"

"What a fine start to a summer of Bankside theatricals this Romeo and Juliet proves, revealing itself to be accessible, appealing and on the good side of broad, unlike too many over-emphatic shows at this venue in recent years."

"Holmes’s vision is no dispiriting instance of a classic play being shoe-horned into an outlandish concept, but something quite the opposite: it makes perfect sense for the Capulets and Montagues to be warring tribes in a place of barely suppressed lawlessness"

"Asde makes a notable stage debut, giving Romeo a slinking and mercurial charisma that suggests all the headstrong impetuousness of teenage infatuation. We miss Asde’s liveliness when Romeo is banished to Mantua, although Shalam makes good work of Juliet"

"Why is it set in the Wild West?"

"Lola Shalam is strident, standout Juliet - but the production could do without those massive white hats and all that shouting"

"Surely that should be *Rodeo* and Juliet. There are three contradictory concepts at work in Sean Holmes’s boisterous staging of Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers, the most obvious of which is that it’s set for no apparent reason in the Wild West. You’re distracted from compelling central performances – particularly Lola Shalam’s strident, standout Juliet - by all the Stetsons and six-guns, square dances and swinging saloon doors."

"More plausibly but utterly confusingly, the young characters are played as London teenagers (none of the cast attempts an American accent), adrift in a sea of hormones and dangerously armed. This actually works well with Holmes’s third idea, which is to couch the first half of the play as a comedy and the second as a tragedy."

"The Globe’s season opener is a Wild West ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that makes up in originality what it loses in actual tragedy"

"Does it make things a little confusing that all the actors speak in their own accents? Absolutely! Yet the actual originality – as opposed to quote-unquote edgy Romeo and Juliets that have become highly predictable – is admirable."

"Given the double suicide foretold up top, this Romeo and Juliet is remarkably unafraid to have fun. The Western theme is wrung tightly to eke out every last drop of comic potential"

"There are parts, however, where this comic focus doesn’t work. While Michael Elcock initially steals every scene with his vibrant, camp Mercutio, his physical comedy long after being stabbed feels somewhat hammy."

"... you have to admire the Globe’s commitment to doing something different than the different we’re used to."

"Forget 'fair Verona'. Welcome to the Wild West, where Romeo and Juliet are about to meet at a hoedown…"

"Your reaction to being told that director Sean Holmes has given a Wild West setting to Shakespeare's tragedy about star-cross'd lovers might be 'Why?' But hold your horses... Holmes mines great comedy from the text, particularly in the first half"

"But here they are, on a set by Paul Wills that would grace any Western"

"This is a pleasingly original take on the text, the knockabout comedy of the first half contrasting, and giving real heft, to the final scenes"

"Rawaed Asde convinces as a hot-headed Romeo, one moment full of unrequited love for Rosaline, the next head over heels with her cousin Juliet, played here with verve by Lola Shalam."

"This is an unashamedly crowd-pleasing production... but it's too long at three hours, and Holmes doesn't fully deliver on the bold concept."