Romeo and Juliet – East Riddlesden Hall, Keighley

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Joseph Pitcher

In a scene that could easily be a recreation from four hundred years ago, a huge crowd of people gathered in a field to watch a production of Romeo and Juliet.  Without lighting and with very rudimentary staging, the Duke’s Theatre Company was able to captivate their audience.

Joseph Pitcher has directed six multi-roling performers in this sensitively edited piece and has told it at a brisk pace, consistently entertaining and lively. Romeo, played by Alfie Jameson, is a man on a mission, smitten first by an unseen Rosaline before becoming immediately captivated and entranced by Juliet, played by Molly Marr-Johnson.

The relationship between these two is, of course, pivotal and both are excellent. There is an urgency to their romance – it is gutsy and determined in a way which is at once lustfully romantic and beguilingly innocent. Not the innocence of naivety but the more petulant innocence of teenagers only capable of seeing the world from their own point of view. An interesting take – especially powerful Juliet’s speech when she rages at her mother’s demands.

There is however, an interesting mixture of styles in this production. Whilst the heart of it is played with the kind of full-throttle emotion that Shakespeare’s tragedies demands, there is undoubtedly more levity here than in some productions. Lady Capulet and Mercutio are both played Joe Carrick. Mercutio is rather foppish whilst Lady Capulet is haughtily ferocious in a manner akin to a pantomime dame. Whilst that could be perceived as critical, it rather works – this seems like Shakespeare played very much as the Bard himself intended.

Emily Juler’s Nurse is the comic relief in the best traditions of the piece – her dedication to Juliet is uncompromising and strong. Sam Claridge plays Tybalt as a heroic dueller with elegant sword skills, the opposite of his Paris who seems anything but the likely suitor of the lovely Juliet – not exactly the marrying kind.

There are touching moments liberally scattered throughout. When Romeo disappears through a trapdoor on leaving Juliet’s bedchamber, there is a real foreshadowing of their next and final encounter. And, albeit unplanned, the sprinkling of rain which occurred as Romeo wept for his banishment created a great moment of pathetic fallacy.

Diego Pitarch’s costume designs were an eclectic mix – the Montagues seemingly sporting uniforms perhaps from the American civil war whilst the Prince was dressed as a Russian Hussar. Juliet seemed to be in a Victorian dress whilst the Nurse was wearing the bodice and dress of the original Mistress Quickly. If this was to suggest that this a story which could be played out in any time and in any place, then they definitely worked.

Nothing can take away from the tragedy of the play. The premature ending of young love is an everlasting theme and the Duke’s Theatre Company entirely did it justice.

Reviewed on 1st July 2026. Touring nationally until October 2026.