Under Development
My last production as this paper's theatre critic couldn't have
been more memorable. It's not the finest play of my 5 years but, to Derby Shakespeare's
enormous credit, this outshines the Playhouse's Romeo & Juliet in its bold, vigorous
contemporising of the story and, excitingly, we herald a star of the future: 16 year-old
Jack Bamford as Romeo.
I prickled with doubt initially: our al fresco setting was a grey patch of gravel, albeit backed by tall verdant trees, where a TV reporter announces - using non-Shakespearean text - that the Montagues and Capulets are warring fashion houses (although they're more like Mafioso gangs with their gun-belts and bile). However, the reporter then slips into the Bard's proper prologue and although the first lovers' meeting doesn't electrify - they grin, kiss and part - Elaina Evans' brave, brazen Baz Luhrmann-esque pop culture production then comes vibrantly alive.
I loved its style - supermodels, break-dancers, a Cadillac depositing revellers and sight of a Hello magazine with the headline 'Verona's Paris seeks love' - but there's substance, too. I soon began to feel both the passion and pangs of love from Jack Bamford and Ami-Lou Sharpe as Romeo & Juliet. Although Ami-Lou is somewhat older than Jack, I still got a keen sense of the naive, innocent impetuosity of young love, and both tellingly and affectingly display pain and anguish at being torn apart, making for an achingly moving (and superbly staged) death scene.
Other performances shine: Dan Maddison is a humane Friar of gentle gravitas, Nick Hallam is a paterfamilial Capulet impressive in his wrath, Will Tipper plays Tybalt as if he's actively seeking an ASBO, Benjamin Lawrence is an entertaining if too mercurial a Mercutio, and how refreshing to see a young nurse, played with feisty aplomb by the ever-maturing Charlotte Matthews.
However, the night belonged to Jack Bamford. For someone so young, he has supreme confidence, naturalness, intensity and presence. What a find. When he wins an Olivier or a BAFTA, you can say you saw him here.
Ashley Franklin
Derby Evening Telegraph