The Oxford University Dramatic Society is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its summer tour to Japan with a fine new production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In a signal honour for the company, it has been invited to perform at the prestigious Metropolitan Art Space in Tokyo. Before that, the play is being staged in three London churches, in Stratford-upon-Avon and from next Wednesday to Saturday in the Provost's Garden at The Queen's College, Oxford.
On the evidence of a preview performance on Tuesday in Oxford's Wesley Memorial Church, this will prove a worthy showcase in the Far East for the best of Oxford (and, indeed, British) student drama. It is a good-looking production in an appropriate setting - among the Bright Young Things of the 1920s - clearly established from the outset (following an uncertain, and only partly audible, introduction from Anna Chojnicka's Chorus, whose promise of a "two hours' traffic of our stage" is for once honoured).
The shifting of the first ructions between the Montagues and Capulets from the servant classes to their masters is an especially felicitous touch from director Piers Barclay. As the parties spit their insulting questions, to which is appended in each case the false politeness of a "sir", the impression is of a serious falling-out among tough toffs - the tail-coated members of Oxford's Bullingdon Club, say.
Matt Lacey best sets the tone as the bully-boy Tybalt in a star performance which is matched only by himself, again, as the meddlesome Friar Laurence whose unfortunate involvement with the young lovers seals their doom. (Laura Hanna, as their other adult champion, the Nurse, badly needs to enliven her lacklustre performance with some of the same vigour or, indeed, that displayed by Shaun Passey as Lord Capulet.) While Corinne Sawers appears too knowing and mature - almost at times serene - for the 14-year-old Juliet, her Romeo, Tom Palmer, suggests a credible blend of petulant adolescence with the determined cravings of a mature lover (he has a fine way with Shakespeare's poetry, too). Their passionate couplings possess the right degree of sexual chemistry. This Romeo proves himself as fine a fighter as lover, even if his despatch of the knife-wielding Tybalt with a shot from his pistol is comically reminiscent of Harrison Ford's sudden plugging of the baddie with the sabre in a celebrated scene from Indiana Jones. I suppose it was meant to be. I think the Japanese will love it, along with the other well-managed eruptions of violence depicted here.
For tickets call 01865 305305 (www.oudsjapantour.co.uk).
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