A Plague On Both Your Houses

Mr Wilkinson and I take our dose of culture once or twice a year at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon.  Stratford's only about an hour or so's drive from here, so we've  taken advantage of the close proximity for all the years we've lived here. Most of the productions we've seen have been excellent, as you would expect. Though some, to paraphrase Orwell, are more excellent than others. Mr Wilkinson has been known to nod off, and I've found myself drifting away during some of the less exciting moments.

This was the first production we'd been to in the new RSC theatre which has been undergoing refurbishment for what seems like aeons, and we had got quite used to going to the other place, down the road a bit. So it was nice to get back into the proper theatre, though I'm a bit confused as to what took so long and cost so many gazillions of pounds. Anyway, not to carp, it's all very nice.

But yesterday's visit to see Romeo and Juliet, surely the play everyone thinks they know inside out, was quite stunning. Whether you've seen a million Shakespeare productions, or never seen one at all I would thouroughly recommend it. It's very much an all action production, with fire, noise, explosions and violence aplenty, enough to keep the least Shakespeare oriented teenager transfixed, and great comedic elements supplied mostly by the nurse, played brilliantly by Noma Dumezwen, and most especially by the hilarious and somewhat pornographic Mercutio played with a strong Northern Irish accent by Jonjo O'Neill (that's the actor not the race horse trainer). I loved it.

This is the trailer, just to give you an idea.

If you get a chance to go, don't miss it, you'll love it too.