Image cred­it: Steph­en A’Court

Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle

What a magic­al place Wel­ling­ton is, when you can start your even­ing with gin and fresh sea­food at Cinderella’s for the Wel­ling­ton on a Plate Launch – and pop down to the St James Theatre, home of the Roy­al New Zea­l­and Bal­let for their open­ing night of the icon­ic romance Romeo and Juliet by Wil­li­am Shakespeare. What bet­ter love story to see in the city I love.

Romeo and Juliet is not just a bal­let or a love story, but a world of pos­sib­il­ity, hope and beauty that radi­ates from the St James stage, warm­ing our hearts and ears with the New Zea­l­and Sym­phony Orchestra’s beau­ti­ful melod­ies con­duc­ted by Ham­ish McK­eich.

The music and cho­reo­graphy are impec­cably entwined as we watch the cheer­ful vil­la­gers come to life in vivid col­our and cos­tumes by the maes­tro of fash­ion, James Acheson, whose career spans 50 years and 36 epis­odes of Dr Who, and who also cre­ated the beau­ti­ful set designs, which rotate, rise and sur­prise audi­ences through­out the show’s three acts.

Acheson’s cos­tumes take us to the heart of Ver­ona, where each cos­tume is layered and tex­tured with gold and a vel­veteen sheen of hid­den lay­ers – pinks, greens, blues and yel­lows. This garden-worthy array of cos­tumes worn by the vil­la­gers, wel­come us into Ver­ona with frivol­ous fun and fiery flir­ta­tions that intro­duce the clash­ing Montague and Cap­u­let fam­il­ies, includ­ing our lov­er boy Romeo in dreamy blue.

Roy­al New Zea­l­and Ballet’s own Prince Charm­ing (Joshua Guille­mot-Rodger­son) is back in anoth­er his­tor­ic­al romance since his roy­al lead role in Cinder­ella in 2022. This time his char­ac­ter Romeo is a trouble­maker with his friends Mer­cu­tio and Ben­volio, since every good bromance needs its three mus­ket­eers.

Things don’t go smoothly for Romeo, who defends his pal in a duel to the death. This bodes well for audi­ences thanks to Simon Mann’s fight dir­ec­tion (also from Cinder­ella), but threatens Romeo’s rela­tion­ship with sweet, inno­cent Juliet (Kath­er­ine Minor), whose head­strong cous­in Tybalt (Laurynas Vejalis) gets caught in their dra­mat­ic battle.

Romeo seems over­all sur­pris­ingly care­free and devoid of respons­ib­il­it­ies, while Escal­us, Prince of Ver­ona, makes me wish I had a cape, guards­man, and a thun­der­ing per­cus­sion accom­pani­ment everytime I walk in a room.

Juliet and her bright-eyed maid­en friends are con­trast­ingly delight­ful, hope­ful and happy in con­trast to all the fight­ing. Juliet has the added pro­tec­tion of her mat­ronly nurse (Gretchen Steimle) dressed in garden green, who is a pleas­ure to watch dote over the young women, and looks as if she’s about to burst into song like Maria from the Sound of Music from the joy on her face.

These friend­ships and rela­tion­ships bring the story to life, as the set trans­itions from day to night and I don’t even notice because I’m caught up in the beau­ti­ful com­radery and cho­reo­graphy by Andrea Scher­moly, espe­cially Romeo and Juliet’s first duet, and their last.

Everything about these per­form­ances and cos­tumes sparkle, with gold threads catch­ing the beau­ti­ful light­ing designed by Jeremy Fern. It takes me back to Ver­ona and Juliet’s bal­cony where I vis­ited in 2017, and of course the bal­cony in Romeo and Juliet is a char­ac­ter in itself which will not dis­ap­point.

When the cur­tains close and the theatre lights return (3 times for 3 acts!) I keep try­ing to hold on to the beau­ti­ful pirou­ettes, vel­veteen cos­tumes, and whim­sic­al, beau­ti­ful music by Sergei Prokofiev, which sounds like it could have been com­posed last year, not 1935.

I am reminded of the power these beau­ti­ful stor­ies have in con­nect­ing us, and remind­ing us that the world isn’t so far apart, when the magic of art, dance and bal­let can con­nect us all on a rainy Wel­ling­ton night. Wheth­er you’re wear­ing slip­pers or glass slip­pers – (that’s a dif­fer­ent Cinder­ella story, which you can see at Te Aua­ha, in Into The Woods!)

Love is a jour­ney and a des­tin­a­tion, and you can find it in Romeo and Juliet, on until Sat­urday.