Northern Ballet’s interpretation of Romeo & Juliet by the late Christopher Gable and Massimo Moricone is now more than 30 years’ old and (like Juliet herself) it has been revived from oblivion, after the sets and costumes were destroyed by flood water almost a decade ago. Hopefully (unlike Juliet) this revival will be long-lived.
There have been many full-length ballets made on Shakespeare’s tragedy (those by Nureyev, Ashton and Cranko immediately spring to mind) but in London it is Kenneth MacMillan’s choreography that comfortably rules the roost. And even though I would argue that his 1965 production is the definitive interpretation, there is still much to be admired from this gem within Northern Ballet’s repertoire.
The first act, perhaps overlong in MacMillan’s ballet, is very much cut to the quick. The characters of Rosaline and MacMillan’s harlots have hit the cutting room floor. The fight between the Montagues and Capulets is much more of a barroom brawl than a pitched battle and the only casualty is a young boy (although he does mysteriously seem to be reincarnated for the third act). The culminating highlight is as it should be, a particularly sensual and dreamy balcony pas de deux.
The second act is also similarly pruned of any action that doesn’t drive the central story along, focusing on the key moments of the Nurse’s comical delivery of the letter from Juliet to Romeo, the wedding (where the newly minted lovers simply can’t keep their hands off each other), Tybalt’s murder of Mercutio and Romeo’s revenge, followed by the extreme outpouring of Lady Capulet’s grief. The Gable/Moricone production makes it obvious that there is a “thing” between Tybalt and Lady C (including a heightened tension between Lord and Lady Capulet at the Ball when trying to persuade Tybalt not to attack Romeo). I have to say that structurally and choreographically I might even prefer this act to that of MacMillan. Every moment seems to matter and that draws one into the stage in a much more consistently absorbing way.
Act 3 follows the MacMillan structure fairly faithfully, although I’m not convinced by the decision to have Juliet’s bedroom invaded by a group of both men and women on the morning of her wedding. It seems much more appropriate that it should be just her female friends. I suppose that appropriate decorum was still achieved since Juliet was already comatose.
I found myself thinking in one of the intervals that structurally this production is a kind of edited highlights of Romeo & Juliet but, in retrospect, that is unfair since it is a well-crafted ballet that runs deep. Lez Brotherston’s monumental set (refreshed, repaired and recreated after the flood) superbly places the viewer’s mind into a medieval marketplace in Verona (but, importantly, in a way that enables the set to be toured).
Other reasons to celebrate this opening night at Sadler’s Wells (midway through a nine-city tour of England) were the plethora of outstanding performances, starting, of course, with the star cross’d lovers themselves. The chemistry and mutual sensuality between Joseph Taylor’s Romeo and Dominique Larose’s Juliet was so palpable that I felt voyeuristic watching them cuddled up in bed together at the beginning of Act 3. The mutual tenderness in their pas de deux was arresting and I especially warmed to the way in which Taylor’s Romeo stalked Juliet around the ballroom, never taking his eyes off her while she danced with Paris (an aristocratic Jackson Dwyer) and her friends. Taylor is a very striking Romeo and Larose was quite perfect in her rapid journey from childish adolescent to calculating adult. It was one of the most engrossing performances as Juliet that I have seen for many a year.
Aaron Kok was suitably mischievous and explosive as Mercutio and Harriet Marden was also outstanding as Lady Capulet, with her frenzied grief and subsequent impenetrable aloofness. Heather Lehan’s portrayal of the rotund Nurse was comedy gold. Harry Skoupas was appropriately sneering and caddish as the villainous Tybalt and Jonathan Hanks (unrecognisable in a thick beard) gave a finely detailed portrayal of Lord Capulet, being caught between many emotions.
This performance was prefaced by a quiet demonstration outside Sadler’s Wells about proposals to get rid of the live orchestra; at the beginning of act 3, with prolonged audience applause, a placard was raised from the back of the pit; and as conductor, Daniel Parkinson took his well-deserved curtain call, a balloon was raised above the stage. Both placard and balloon simply stated, “Keep Northern Ballet Live”. The Northern Ballet Sinfonia, an ensemble of just 28 musicians, performed John Longstaff’s unique orchestration of Prokofiev’s score quite splendidly. Heaven alone knows what the Sadler’s Wells sound system would have made of a recording. We should all support this campaign to keep it live and keep it real: these excellent musicians deserve nothing less.
