Matthew Bourne's 'Romeo & Juliet' at Sadler's Wells

A new Matthew Bourne production can be a worrying thing - will I like it? Is this the one that goes wrong? Will I love it? You won't know until you see it, so, avoiding reviews and production photos as much as possible we went off to Sadler's Wells to see the Capulet company dance his new version of 'Romeo & Juliet'. There are two sets of dancers named after the quarrelling families from the play, the Montague Company and the Capulet Company and we saw the Capulet's dance.

We all know the story of 'Romeo & Juliet' with it's rival families where the children fall in love, Juliet's big brother Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio and Romeo must take revenge for the honour of his friend. Romeo and Juliet secretly marry but end up committing suicide. OK? Forget that. Forget the MacMillan ballet. Forget the market place and the Happy Trollops, the sword fencing and the grand costumes. This version is set in an institution for teenagers with security guards patrolling the hallways and acres of creamy white institutional tiles on the walls to make it easy to clean. This is not the Verona we know, this is Verona Institute.

We meet Juliet early on while one of the guards is picking on the girls and she intervenes so they can escape but she's caught and led off the stage to do what? The guard is nasty Tybalt, a giant compared to little Juliet and they reappear going through more doors in different parts of the stage. What is happening? The clear inference is that he intends to abuse Juliet in some way away from prying eyes.  This institute is not a nice place.

Romeo appears, consigned to the institute by his parents and, at a party for the teenagers, he meets Juliet and the inevitable happens. By now, of course, he's met Mercutio and his boyfriend Balthasar and the boys are busy having a dance-off while he sees Juliet and asks her to dance. Their fate is set, the only question is how do we get to the inevitable tragedy at the end? I did wonder a few times whether the ending would be changed as well and it was, but I won't say how. I'll save the surprise so you need to see it for yourself.

I liked the new, feisty Juliet who jumps on Tybalt to pull him off Romeo, a great twist to the character. Romeo was more hesitant than the brash young man we normally see, clearly troubled but delights in his new-found love. Mercutio is still the dashing young man and in the dance scene delighted in wearing a kilt. And Tybalt? He's a nasty piece of work. I liked the set and seeing reflections of the dancers flash across the tiled walls - was that by design or was it a happy accident? I did yearn now and then for one of Lez Brotherston's more elaborate sets to ease the starkness of the institute but, then again, this was perfect for the setting.

Our Juliet was danced by Cordelia Braithwaite and Romeo was Paris Fitzpatrick, with Reece Causton as Mercutio and Dan Walker as Tybalt. There some nice little touches of normalcy like when, after the other kids have seen them kiss, the girls all gather round Juliet to get the details and the boys all clown around Romeo seeing it a bit of fun. The fight with Tybalt was also very well done, with lots of the kids involved and Juliet helping Romeo but the fatal stroke was Romeo's alone. Honour has to be restored.

After it's short residency at Sadler's Wells the production goes on tour and, in each location a half  a dozen or so of the dancers will be local kids, giving them an invaluable chance to dance alongside professionals in a big production. I wouldn't have been able to identify the 'amateurs' from the professionals from what I saw the other evening at Sadler's Wells. Well done all.

So, is this the production that doesn't work and the I don't like? Most certainly not! It took me a while to get into it and understand who was who on the stage but it ticked all the right boxes for me! It doesn't have the immediacy of 'Swan Lake' or 'Sleeping Beauty' but it's a very different show to both of those. The music by Prokofiev was re-arranged and re-ordred and played live, which was great fun. Go and see it if you can - I think the Sadler's Wells run is sold out but it'll be playing around the country. Oh, and Sir Matthew was in the audience as well.