Romeo and Juliet
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Observer

I suspect that while rehearsing The Alchemist Trevor Nunn actually found the philosopher’s stone; if King Lear at the Aldwych was an improvement on its Stratford self, Romeo and Juliet is a transmutation. I never thought to be so moved by this play: by the reconciliation at the end (with the stilling of John Woodvine’s raging Capulet) as well as by the lovers. Francesca Annis plays the potion scene with terrifying immediacy. The balcony scene, as she and Iain McKellen act it, is funny as well as magical; hyperbole made flesh. 

This is a great production, partly because it is so abundantly witty; the play is as conceited as Its contemporary Love’s Labour’s Lost. So Michael Pennington’s Queen Mab speech is mockery and celebration at once, and his whole performance brilliantly blends Mercutio’s loneliness and camaraderie. The stage is crammed with meanings: in relationships and in individual performances (Miss Annis fairly oozes with it). It extends to the clown, Peter: Richard Griffiths—with his Bottom, so to speak, behind him—has come to full comic mystery. He is a walking slow burn.