Romeo and Juliet – Liverpool Everyman

Writer:  William Shakespeare

Music: Dom Coyote 

Director: Ellie Hurt 

A symphony of raging hormones. This production of Romeo and Juliet felt tumultuously in touch with the teenage experience, modernising the iconic love story and making every audience member feel a part of it. This show is a great play for Shakespeare lovers and newbies of the bard, since it’s flawless comedic timing, physical performance, fast pace, and modern line delivery make the play easy to follow and thrilling to watch. 

Romeo and Juliet are the children of two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues. Once they meet and fall deeply in love, they never wish to be parted. But these star-crossed lovers are destined for a tragic end.   

For a play at which it’s almost guaranteed everyone knows the story, or at least knows the end, the tension felt by the audience was palpable. Audience members gasped and audibly recoiled at the play’s more gruesome scenes. The stage, which was flush with the floor and the front row, felt like it brought the audience into the play, making them accomplices to the gang violence of the Montagues and the Capulets. 

But the stage’s involvement of the audience during tragic moments wasn’t the only time the audience felt included, it also added to the show’s unexpected, but incredibly well-done comedic moments. Though ‘moments’ might be putting it lightly, since for a tragic play the audience hardly stopped laughing.

The whole cast has impeccable comedic timing and a way of performing tragedy which is all-consuming. Each dissolves into the role they play perfectly. Which is all the more impressive for the multi-rolling actors, Ebony Feare, who plays a hilarious Nurse and a formidable Prince, and Milo McCarthy, who plays a fierce Tybalt and a foppish yet innocent Paris. 

The seamless blend of hilarious comedy and nail-biting tragedy is a large element of what makes the show so impactful and immersive, so much so that the actors earned two standing ovations at the end of the play and had to take multiple sets of bows to appease the cheering crowd. 

The title duo have electrifying chemistry. Romeo and Juliet, played by Zoe West and Alicia Forde respectively, are giddy, loved-up teenagers who can’t keep their hands off each other. Their meeting scene is awkward and juvenile, which does more than add a comedic edge to the moment; it feels in keeping with their true age as a couple in their early teens. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the common versions of two adult actors falling madly in love at first sight. Instead, in Hurt’s version, a drunken Romeo places his hand awkwardly in the middle of the bench, hoping that the nervous, but obviously interested, Juliet will take it. The drawn-out moment is rife with the novelty and exploration of a first relationship. Instead of the confident and instantly romantic meeting scene that we’re used to, the awkwardness makes it endearing, vulnerable, and most importantly, relatable.

The play’s ability to relate to the audience is what makes this a great play for first-time Shakespeare theatre-goers. Its modern resetting and the actor’s casual line delivery make Shakespeare’s poetic lines sound like modern-day English. Newcomers to Shakespeare would not struggle to understand this play. Especially, with its highly physical performance to pair the dialogue with the actor’s movements.

Though clever artistic license was taken throughout the play, the only off-book decision which struck a discord at times was the production’s choice to include choral singing of some of the play’s most famous lines. 

At times, the choral singing gave the tragedy an almost Ancient Greek chorus effect- an audience on stage commenting on the lovers- but at other times it distracted from the moment and took you out of the story. A similar distracting effect could be said for the multi-roling of the characters Tybalt and Paris. Since Paris is on stage after Tybalt’s death, the actor’s return is at first anticlimactic. Hurt strays from using Elliot Broadfoot again as a prominent returning role after Mercutio’s death to avoid this same problem.  

However, these moments are easily covered by the production’s many strengths. Another undeniable factor is how visually stunning the play is. The lighting design, by KJ, is phenomenal. A deep red for violent scenes flooded the theatre, but at romantic, intimate moments, the lighting softens, resembling the coloured reflections in bubbles. And though Romeo and Juliet’s ending is rarely a surprise to audiences, the production has a finale trick up its sleeve, which did not fail to amaze the audience. 

This production of Romeo and Juliet will wash away everything you thought you knew about the play. If you want to see classic Shakespeare with a fresh take, this is for you. 

Runs until 4 October 2025