Botanic Garden, Glasgow
Four stars
On the street, the barricades are full of bouquets tied on in tribute to the victims of the teenage gang warfare that runs riot throughout Bard in the Botanics’ latest look at Shakespeare’s tragedy of young lovers. Gordon Barr’s outdoor production sets out its store on designer Hannah Grace Currie’s neglected building site. This becomes an adventure playground for the tracksuit sporting rebels without a cause who need to build a kingdom of their own.
While Mercutio and Benvolio might be happy to represent the Montague young team in a square go with Tybalt and the Capulet kids, as soon as Romeo and the boys gatecrash Juliet’s family do, our hero’s one-track mind is set on her alone. Juliet may be up for it too, but if either of them gets found out they’ll be grounded for life, or worse.
The perils of puppy love in the middle of a family feud are plain to see in Barr’s production, which has a mere five actors carry the play. Bailey Newsome doubles up as the Capulet patriarch and Romeo’s best mate Mercutio, who he plays as a tough talking radge clutching a bottle of cider. Benjamin Keachie is just as chippy as Tybalt, while also making a cherubic looking Friar Laurence. As Benvolio, Star Penders is a more reserved and less confrontational figure, with Penders also providing empathy as Juliet’s Nurse.
At the play’s heart, Sam Stopford and Lola Aluko make the cutest of couples as the doomed pair. This is the case from the moment Juliet peers down from the scaffolding that becomes her bedroom, to the play’s final self-destructive moments when they overdose on love. As Romeo and Juliet become the latest statistics of tit for tat violence, Barr’s refreshingly youthful affair suggests the kids aren’t always alright.
The Herald, July 24th 2025
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