With his latest production, Artistic Director of the Sydney Shakespeare Company Steve Hopley takes on Shakespeare’s great romantic tale of woe, Romeo and Juliet.

First, to the staging which was innovative and effective. The stage was essentially divided into two sections.

The back section was the set (Emily Borgi),
a ‘miniature’ representation of the townscape of Verona with the building facade and the town entrance.

The front section was left as an open space area where all the action of the play takes place including the party at the Capulets where Romeo and Juliet meet, and the legendary sword fighting scenes where Mercutio and Tybalt meet their demise.

The production featured one principal prop, a sideboard, for want of a better description, that ‘counted for’ , among other things, Juliet’s bed where she takes Friar Lawrence’s potion.

Jerry Retford’s lighting kept the actors well lit, Franke Visser’s period costumes were fetching. A bit of a Renaissance Man, Hopley provided a brief score to accompany a few of the major scenes.

One of Shakespeare’s most loved plays, Romeo and Juliet features some of the Bard’s most memorable, vibrant characters and the cast do well in representing them.

Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou made for a feisty, strident Juliet. Benjamin Winckle was a poetic, lyrical Romeo.

Steve Hopley gives a strong performance as the wise cracking, flamboyant Mercutio. Jasper Garner Gore came across credibly as the firebrand Tybalt.

Chris Miller made a strong impression as Prince Escalus, one of the Bard’s noblest Princes, who scalds the two feuding families for the young lives that have been lost as a result of their rivalry.

Emily Weire hit the right notes as Juliet’s fastidious, doting Nurse.

Christopher Dibb played lion hearted Capulet, and Emily Richardson was Lady Capulet, Juliet’s parents who put too much pressure on their fragile, young fourteen year old daughter.

Leo Domican and Katherine Shearer play Romeo’s old folks who are emotionally torn apart by their wilful, hot blooded son’s behaviour and hi9s banishment from Verona.

My favourite scene. The legendary balcony scene was delicately performed by Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou and Benjamin Winckle. Juliet peered out of tiny postcard window cut into the set facade to wax lyrical with Rome. No doubt, Grigorio had to climb a ladder or the like to get to her balcony.

A well considered and compelling production, Sydney Shakespeare Company’s production of ROMEO AND JULIET played the PACT Theatre, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville between September 28 and October 9.