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Greenwich Theatre, London
Until July 25
Running Time: approximately three hours, including interval
James Aldred, Ava Honey, Charlotte Harwood, Nikita Johal, Matt Penson, Blossom Timothy,
Director: James Haddrell
Musical Director: James Aldred
Producer: Greenwich Theatre
Even in times when women are cast as Shakespeare’s Lear and Prospero, it’s a bold move to do the same with Romeo – the byword for the romantic male lover.
It’s the tactic of Greenwich Theatre’s artistic director James Haddrell, who has also dared to compete for audience attention with the World Cup and heatwave weather in what is billed as fresh, summer Shakespeare.
Unarguably, making Romeo a woman is a new perspective on a play many of us know, or thought we knew, line by line.
It is also unarguable that the tragedy’s central passion is as inexplicable as the ancient enmity that until Romeo and Juliet fell instantly in love was the only emotion that bound the Montagues and Capulets. It is just as likely that Juliet could be in love with a woman as with a man and if, when the thunderbolt strikes, we’re not sure she knows that the person behind the mask is a woman, does that matter?
What jars, however, is that for all the lines that gain new sense, the meaning of others becomes tangled even though one of this production’s strengths is delivery that draws out significance.
The revelation is the devastating power of the feeling within the Capulet family. The most overwhelming scenes depict the violent emotion prompted by Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris followed by her apparent death.
As Lord Capulet, Matt Penson switches from the loving father for whom Juliet was the only hope the earth had not swallowed to incandescent rage. It is ironic indeed that he calls his daughter headstrong as well as far worse. Meanwhile, we wait in vain for Charlotte Harwood as Lady Capulet to side with the daughter she coldly and quietly shrugs off. This more than the wasted youthful passion of Romeo and Juliet feels like the real tragedy.
A short time later, these defective parents are distraught beside what seems to be their daughter’s deathbed, then in another rollercoaster twist, Lady Capulet decides to blame the man she could have offered comfort. We can well believe such hot heads could have kept a feud alive for decades and more.
Harwood also shows her acting prowess as the calm, cool-headed Friar Lawrence, musing over plants at once poisonous and curative and the general doubleness of things and people.
She seeks to reason Romeo out of what is portrayed as effeminate grief. The characterisation is troubling and illuminating as this production successfully underlines the extreme youth of the central pair Romeo and Juliet, played by Blossom Timothy and Ava Honey.
They are bound above all by music, which seals their marriage and throughout creates harmony from confusion.
In addition to changing the gender of Romeo, this production casts a woman Nikita Johal as Mercutio. If women have no monopoly on tears, then the feisty, energetic Johal proves men are not the only ones to relish bawdy lines, a swaggering scorn of love and above all a sword good fight.
Romeo and Juliet,
Greenwich Theatre, London
Until July 25
Running Time: approximately three hours, including interval
James Aldred, Ava Honey, Charlotte Harwood, Nikita Johal, Matt Penson, Blossom Timothy,
Director: James Haddrell
Musical Director: James Aldred
Producer: Greenwich Theatre
Even in times when women are cast as Shakespeare’s Lear and Prospero, it’s a bold move to do the same with Romeo – the byword for the romantic male lover.
It’s the tactic of Greenwich Theatre’s artistic director James Haddrell, who has also dared to compete for audience attention with the World Cup and heatwave weather in what is billed as fresh, summer Shakespeare.
Unarguably, making Romeo a woman is a new perspective on a play many of us know, or thought we knew, line by line.
It is also unarguable that the tragedy’s central passion is as inexplicable as the ancient enmity that until Romeo and Juliet fell instantly in love was the only emotion that bound the Montagues and Capulets. It is just as likely that Juliet could be in love with a woman as with a man and if, when the thunderbolt strikes, we’re not sure she knows that the person behind the mask is a woman, does that matter?
What jars, however, is that for all the lines that gain new sense, the meaning of others becomes tangled even though one of this production’s strengths is delivery that draws out significance.
The revelation is the devastating power of the feeling within the Capulet family. The most overwhelming scenes depict the violent emotion prompted by Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris followed by her apparent death.
As Lord Capulet, Matt Penson switches from the loving father for whom Juliet was the only hope the earth had not swallowed to incandescent rage. It is ironic indeed that he calls his daughter headstrong as well as far worse. Meanwhile, we wait in vain for Charlotte Harwood as Lady Capulet to side with the daughter she coldly and quietly shrugs off. This more than the wasted youthful passion of Romeo and Juliet feels like the real tragedy.
A short time later, these defective parents are distraught beside what seems to be their daughter’s deathbed, then in another rollercoaster twist, Lady Capulet decides to blame the man she could have offered comfort. We can well believe such hot heads could have kept a feud alive for decades and more.
Harwood also shows her acting prowess as the calm, cool-headed Friar Lawrence, musing over plants at once poisonous and curative and the general doubleness of things and people.
She seeks to reason Romeo out of what is portrayed as effeminate grief. The characterisation is troubling and illuminating as this production successfully underlines the extreme youth of the central pair Romeo and Juliet, played by Blossom Timothy and Ava Honey.
They are bound above all by music, which seals their marriage and throughout creates harmony from confusion.
In addition to changing the gender of Romeo, this production casts a woman Nikita Johal as Mercutio. If women have no monopoly on tears, then the feisty, energetic Johal proves men are not the only ones to relish bawdy lines, a swaggering scorn of love and above all a sword good fight.
Barbara Lewis © 2026.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre