A square deal for all the family

Romeo & Juliet (assorted London parks) Verdict: Posh picnic ★★★✩✩

THIS park-hopping Shakespeare allows us lesser mortals to peep inside some exclusive London squares.

And are there any posher than Connaught Square, W2, where Tony and Cherie keep their Georgian mansion guarded by armed police?

This was where Shakespeare In The Squares laid its scene for the Bard’s most famous tragic love story this week.

The idea is that you bring your own vino and goodies to hunker down for a nice picnic before and after the two-hour drama.

Tatty Hennessy’s feisty production presses ahead with its 2017 multi-cultural casting, fabulous Forties Italian costumes and acting that’s pure 1890s Victorian melodrama (needs must when contending with roller-skating gangs and passing Ferraris).

Naomi Bullock is particularly vivid as Juliet’s mother with her quavering elocution and she never misses a chance to shuffle her bosom or jiggle her eyebrows.

More subtle but with no less volume, Indigo Griffiths is a likeably undesigning teenage Juliet while Adam Strawford makes a personable Romeo. And as his friend Mercutio, Jack Brett is boisterously histrionic.

Find the next squares on the tour at shakespeare inthesquares.co.uk.