Theatre Review: Romeo and Juliet Maidment Theatre

Brooke Williams creates a compelling Juliet for our times. Photo / Supplied

An ATC presentation of Shakespeare's most popular play puts the directorial statement very much in the foreground and, as is often the case with heavily conceptualised productions, director Willem Wassenaar has some hits and misses.

The hip setting is designed to appeal to a young audience with Juliet singing pop ditties by Taylor Swift and the masked ball enveloped in pounding nightclub beats.

The production scores a sensational hit with an electrifying performance from Brooke Williams who creates a compelling Juliet for our times. Capturing the jittery energy of adolescence she presents a feisty teenager, aching for excitement and totally in control of her own destiny.

Kip Chapman's portrayal of Mercutio is also completely successful, with the notoriously difficult Queen Mab speech making perfect sense when it is placed within the self-dramatising histrionics of a screaming queen.

Lady Capulet is cleverly conceived as an Ivana Trump-style trophy wife with Elena Stejko manipulating Juliet like a manikin and convincingly voicing the tribal instinct of an eye-for-an-eye.

The bold interpretations are well matched by Andrew Foster's impressive set design and for the first half of the play we are swept up in the exuberant energy and visual panache of the production.

But as the play grinds towards its tragic conclusion the contemporary flavour feels at odds with Shakespeare's complex meditations on destiny, freedom and the paradox of a love that both threatens and heals the structure of society.

Romeo's poetic declarations of love are delivered with a casual irony that makes his actions appear inexplicable. As a result the passions of the star crossed lovers seem rather insipid, particularly when set against the powerfully authentic relationship between Juliet and her nurse - played with wonderfully robust earthiness by Geraldine Brophy.

But if the interpretations do not always strike a chord, it is a great pleasure to see a superb cast intelligently wrestling with the text in a manner that reminds us of the challenge posed by Shakespeare's sheer genius.

What: Romeo and Juliet.

Where: Maidment Theatre, until August 14.