The Cork Opera House production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet abounds in skateboards, mobile phones, scooters and rap rhythms; has lots of action, compresses the cast to six players and presents the tragedy in an unbroken 105 minutes.
Its stylistic ambition is indicated by Fiona Leech's set of exaggerated perspectives and Joanne Cassidy's eclectic costumes (ski-caps, golf-shoes, and garments stretching from the Middle Ages to the 1980s); the multi-purpose cast is distinguished by the performances of Edward Coughlan, as the nurse, and Ginevra Benedetti, as a winsome Juliet.
It is a production to which director Belinda Wild has brought originality and energy, and she is well served by all her company.
Tragedy, however, is beyond the scope of this superficial and verbally prosaic reading, and any sense of drama is obliterated by the pressure of reduction. Although everything moves at speed, there is no tension.
Some confusion about the relationship between setting and staging means, for example, that the dimensions of the tomb on which Juliet is laid out are such that Romeo can't quite squeeze himself on to it, and his efforts to do so justify the otherwise startling rapidity of both deaths.
Romeo and Juliet is at The Forum, Waterford, from November 20th to 23rd (051 87 11 11); and at the Excel Theatre, Tipperary, from November 27th to 30th (062 805 20)
