RSC bring Romeo & Juliet to The Lowry

Oct 24 2008 by Michael Green, Chester Chronicle

FOLLOWING its successful visit with The Comedy of Errors last year, the Royal Shakespeare Company returns to The Lowry at Salford Quays from November 11-15 with Shakespeare’s epic tale of thwarted love, Romeo and Juliet.

David Dawson, who comes from Widnes and trained at RADA, will now perform alongside Anneika Rose. Both actors are making their RSC debut in the title roles.

Anneika Rose, who trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now joins David and the company in rehearsals. Laura Rees, who was scheduled to play the part of Juliet has had to withdraw from the show due to illness.

David Dawson recently played Smike in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Gielgud Theatre, London; Chichester and international tour), for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Newcomer in a Play.

Other theatre credits include The Entertainer and Richard II (Old Vic). TV appearances include The Thick Of It and Essex Girls (BBC), Doc Martin and Up Close and Personal (ITV).

Featuring a company of 23 actors and a seven-piece live band on stage, this boldly theatrical new staging of Shakespeare’s fast-moving story of two teenagers torn apart by their families’ vendetta, reunites award-winning director Neil Bartlett and designer Kandis Cook, the creative team behind the 2007 sell-out Stratford-upon-Avon production of Twelfth Night.

Neil Bartlett said: “I’m very excited to be going back to the RSC – and to be working with a company of 30 performers! I’m going to tell Shakespeare’s story on a bare stage, but with costumes from the Italy of the 1940s and 50s – think of early Fellini and Visconti movies.

“For the story to catch fire, the company has to be able to move as fast as the emotions of the lovers do, and the world of the play has to be harsh, Catholic, sexy, violent – so the beautiful, hot-blooded poetry is going to be punctuated by the flash of knives, and the sound of an Italian street band, playing live on stage with the actors.

“Our tour takes us to some really fine theatres, and I’m especially excited by the fact that this particular play always draws a crowd – both of young people who’ve never seen a Shakespeare play before, and of people who know and love it as one of the best stories ever written about how the world can conspire to destroy all that is brightest and most beautiful.”

Neil Bartlett, the director of Romeo and Juliet, was artistic director of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre between 1994–2004, where he directed 37 productions, including Kleist’s The Prince of Homberg and Marivaux’s The Dispute - both co-productions with the RSC.

In 2007 he returned to the RSC to direct Twelfth Night with John Lithgow. His production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband opens at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in August 2008. Skin Lane, his acclaimed third novel, was nominated for the Costa Novel Award 2008.

The cast also includes: Owain Arthur (Peter), Ben Ashton (Paris), James G. Bellorini (Friar John), Michael Benz (Balthasar), James Clyde (Friar Laurence), Dan Crow (Sampson), Mark Holgate (Tybalt), Christopher Hunter (Lord Capulet), Katie Krane (Lady Montague), Julie Legrand (Nurse), Éva Magyar (Lady Capulet), Niamh McCann (Ball Guest), Vinta Morgan (Escalus), Geoffrey Newland (Capulet’s Cousin), Ryan O’Donnell (Gregory), Daniel Percival (Benvolio), Craig Ritchie (Apothecary), Anneika Rose (Ball Guest), Mark Ross (Lord Montague), Gyuri Sarossy (Mercutio) and Rebecca Wingate (Ball Guest).

The production will also feature a seven-piece live band on stage.

For booking information, ring the box office on 0870 787 5793 or visit www.thelowry.com.