Photo credit: Pamela Raith Photography
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Ellie Hurt
Liverpool EVERYMAN
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The star-crossed lovers have been reimagined countless times, but the Everyman’s latest take on Romeo and Juliet proves there’s still fire in one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Director Ellie Hurt has shaken the dust off the Verona cobblestones and transplanted them into a world that feels strikingly contemporary, without losing the pulse of Shakespeare’s poetry.
The Everyman’s thrust stage, with its intimacy and edge, works wonders for a play about red hot passion colliding with simmering feuds. The opening brawl brims with a raw, streetwise energy that instantly declares this is not a Verona of ruffled sleeves and dainty sonnets, but one where violence is sadly as casual and lethal as in any British city today.
Alicia Forde delivers a Juliet played with a sharp wit and a teenager’s quicksilver emotional shifts, she resists the tragic heroine mould and instead feels vividly alive; by turns funny, impatient, fierce, and achingly young. Zoe West as Romeo is a mixture of impulsive swagger and genuine vulnerability that is utterly absorbing. The electric chemistry between these star crossed lovers burns not in polished declarations, but in stolen glances and nervous laughter, which makes their sudden plunge into tragedy all the more painfully poignant.
The production is peppered with smart choices as a perfectly cast Elliot Broadfoot delivers Mercutio’s bawdy humour with the timing of a polished stand-up set. Kelise Gordon-Harrison as Benvolio is vibrant with youth yet wiser and more reflective than his peers. Eithne Browne brings real depth and humorous empathy to the Friar.
Image credit: Pamela Raith Photography
Live music underscores scenes with a throbbing, modern urgency from a score by Dom Coyote with music from Joy Division, Kate Bush and Jimmy Somerville interspersed with a hymnal poignancy delivered by the Chorus. The lighting design flips seamlessly from neon brashness to candlelit intimacy. The costume design fuses modern street fashion with that of Tudor times, with every costume having flashes of blood red suggestive of the impending tragedy.
But the Everyman’s greatest triumph here is clarity. For a play often drowned in its own reputation, this staging makes the story feel inevitable and freshly shocking. This could be a balcony in old Verona or a balcony on a council estate in Toxteth or Moss Side. By the time the lovers fall, you’re reminded that tragedy is not about inevitability, but about the exquisite, wasteful cruelty of timing.
This Romeo and Juliet doesn’t just retell a familiar tale—it makes you feel its sting anew, as though hearing that ancient line for the first time…never was a story of more woe.
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