A REGULAR staple of Northern Ballet Theatre's repertoire since 1991, Romeo and Juliet remains a popular favourite with audiences, possibly alienated by artistic director David Nixon's more adventurous choreographic experiments.
While recent productions such as Hamlet was set in France during the Resistance and A Sleeping Beauty Tale became a sci-fi fantasy, Romeo and Juliet is solidly traditional, with Prokofiev's music unashamedly dominating proceedings and inducing a feel
ing a well-being, being both familiar and irresistible.
Christopher Gable and Massimo Morricone's version of the classic has worn well over the years, and former designer Lez Brotherston's set of pillars and columns - with its shattered inscription "Amor Vincit Omnia" emblazoned in stone – is as impressive as it always was.
Three young pairs of dancers now share the honours of dancing the lead roles, and on press night Christopher Hinton-Lewis made a tall, athletic Romeo, partnered by the elfin, but insufficiently girlish Keiko Amemori.
Their thrilling pas de deux were sensual and full of adolescent passion, but the high points of the evening remain the big set pieces, in particular the Montagues' ball is infiltrated by Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio and where the smitten Romeo meets Juliet for the first time. Tybalt (a menacing, slightly camp Yi Song) and his friends strut and pose in gorgeous red, black and gold costumes as the action builds up to the dramatic fight scene amid much histrionics, and the score reaches its powerful climax.
Northern Ballet Theatre returns to the Lyceum with a new adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities in the autumn.
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