YEE HAW, MORE LIKE THEE HAW

By Staff Writer | Press Invite

I was sceptical about a Wild West reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, but if anyone can pull that off it is the Globe Theatre.

Sean Holmes’ direction of the play — which keeps the Western theme to the costumes while sticking to the original Shakespearean English — helmed by the revelatory Lola Shalam, was a phenomenal theatre experience.

It’s been a minute since I’ve read or seen Romeo and Juliet in full, and I forgot just how bawdy and ridiculous the play is until it takes its inevitable turn for the worse (if that’s a spoiler, I really don’t know what to tell you), and I loved the production’s choice to lean into the broad comedy of the first half of the play.

The heightened comedy, made funnier with the addition of cowboy hats and line dancing, successfully spun the audience into the same frenzied hyper mindset of our young lovers, having such a good time that the sudden and extreme bloodshed feels like physical whiplash. Just like the

Popular culture has glazed Juliet over into just a lovesick teenager, but the text is so richer than that, and Lola Shalam was magnificent in carrying all of the complexities of the character.

Juliet, in reality, is quick, sharp, and much more put together than the frankly ridiculous Romeo. I guess historians are still studying how Shakespeare could be so timeless, but it really is astounding to me how he was able to so perfectly capture the experience of being a young girl who thinks she’s wise beyond her years before that delusion catches up to her with catastrophic consequences.

Everyone knows what happens at the end of the play, but Shalam made an acting choice at the very end that was so devastating I’m still not over it.

Michael Elcock was also spectacular as Mercutio. There was a big school group at the Globe on the night I attended, and Elcock had so much fun engaging with the students with his flights of fancy and dizzying dreams.

Rawaed Asde shone as Romeo the depressive sullen teen, but I was not wholly convinced by his turn as a central love interest. He did not charm me in the way that Shalam did, but was still heartbreaking by the end.

In all, I loved that after so many hundred years there is still a fresh and exciting staging of Romeo and Juliet. And, where better to watch it than in an open-air theatre where the sky is light until 10pm?

Romeo and Juliet is running at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre until Saturday 2 August.

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Photo Credit: Tristram Kenton