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.