Lady Rose blooms as Branagh’s perfect Juliet
Romeo And Juliet (Garrick Theatre) Verdict: Lily steals the show ★★★★★
SIR Kenneth Branagh directs Shakespeare with a respect and opulence not much seen in British theatre at present. And in luminous Lily James — Lady Rose in Downton Abbey — he has found the perfect Juliet.
Miss James sees off a challenge from Sir Derek Jacobi, camping it up splendidly as Mercutio, to steal the show. She is beautiful, yes, but she brings so much more to the part.
This Juliet zooms in a trice from despair to face-fanning excitement, doing that ‘gather’ gesture modern girls use. When told Romeo wants to marry her, she gets the hiccups. She has an animated face, a voice that can both roar and whisper, and enough skittish athleticism to do barefoot cartwheels at one point.
Muscular Richard Madden (Game Of Thrones fans will know him) is handsomely cast as her beau. Does he maybe look a little like Andy Burnham? What a terrible thought!
Co- directors Branagh and Rob Ashford have gone for a monochrome aesthetic, the blackand-white clothes matching the stones of Verona, more granite than marble.
The lighting? Ill-lit by moonlight, you could say — but that accentuates the notion that darkness, be it murder or parental domination, may blacken the sky at any hour.
From the moment we see the Montagues and Capulets darting around Verona’s classical columns, it is plain Latin tempers are high. There are repeated snatches of Italian in the margins, plus some jazz music. Juliet (Miss James has a sweetly tremulous voice) sings a sensuous song which bewitches Romeo.
HERE is Romeo And Juliet not as some gloom-laden tragedy from the start but as a pacy depiction of a prosperous and exciting town. Sir Derek’s Mercutio does a little boogie with himself. He is gossipy, naughty — and comes a cropper after playfully kissing the sword- wielding Tybalt (Ansu Kabia). even while dying, he manages a little jest.
Sir Derek’s verse- speaking sets a high standard which the cast largely follows. Mr Madden has a husky delivery — his larynx could possibly do with a squirt of 3-in-1 oil — but with his prominent biceps you can see why this Romeo is a Verona pin-up.
Marisa Berenson, a fashion model and film star in the Seventies, makes a nicely stiff appearance as Lady Capulet. I think the stiffness is intended, anyway.
Meera Syal gives the Nurse an accent that stretches between Poplar and Derby.
The prince of Verona (Taylor James) is done up in what looks like a traffic warden’s outfit, poor lad. Some gender swapping of minor roles matters not a hoot.
After Juliet takes the sleeping draught a large drape shrouds her like a vast wedding veil. Then comes the tomb scene, high- ceilinged, sepulchral. ‘ Death is my son- in- law,’ groans Lord Montague (Chris Porter), a line to make any father shudder.
Juliet’s soliloquy (‘I wish night would come’), contemplating the loss of her virginity, proves beyond doubt that Miss James is star material.
She has the beauty of a Keira Knightley but buckets more stage ability and charm. Bravo!
A VERSION of this review appeared in earlier editions.