Review: We Fall in Love With Northern Ballet's Romeo & Juliet

Adapted by Christopher Gable and Massimo Moricone, Northern Ballet’s production breathes new life into Romeo & Juliet and shows a new side to Shakespeare’s iconic love story where two forbidden lovers risk everything to be together.

This ballet is set in three acts with Prokofiev’s timeless (pre-recorded) music, and each act brings with it a combination of drama and romance. The talented cast of dancers alternate roles for each show and for this evening’s performance our Romeo is the brilliant Kevin Poeung, while the fabulous Sarah Chun plays Juliet.

Throughout the three acts, Kevin and Sarah’s movements mature, starting childlike and spontaneous before turning more passionate, romantic and heavier. Their ballet techniques are so well-practised that each movement feels free, natural and in the moment.

Whilst the dancing is of course the main focus of his dramatic ballet, the sets are eye-catching and easily move from street to ball to crypt, and the costume design deserves its own applause. The Capulets dress in Catherine of Aragon-style dark black and red, contrasting with the Montagues in looser and brighter blue and white.

We particularly love the Capulet party scene with amazing music mixed with the Capulet anthem (the well-known theme song from The Apprentice). Whilst certain well-known scenes from Shakespeare’s play aren’t focused on in detail, others are (including the heart-wrenching moment when Juliet drinks the potion), and we’re offered a closer insight into more of the play’s characters who aren’t usually major roles, such as Lady Capulet (played by Harriet Marden). We can feel her anguish when losing Tybalt in a scene featuring heavy rain at the end of act two, following an interesting fight between Tybalt (Antoni Cañellas Artigues) and Mercutio (Filippo Di Vilio).