Romeo and Juliet
★★★☆☆ Expansive
Pleasance Theatre: Mon 9 – Fri 13 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Romeo and Juliet, from the Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company at the Pleasance, is a production on a grand scale. There is much about it that is praiseworthy, but in the end its ambition does prove a disadvantage.
Under the direction of Salvator Kent, this is a very full rendition of the text, leaving in many parts that are most often cut. This does make it far longer than the ‘two hours’ traffic’ the Prologue promises, clocking in at over three. Indeed, the second half is more than 90 minutes on its own, thanks partly due to the interval being unusually placed in the middle of the fight scene rather than at Romeo’s banishment.
Sam Gearing and Anya McChristie. Pic Andrew Morris
Something that does stretch things out is the praiseworthy respect given to the text; Shakespeare’s verse is not often spoken as well as it is here.
However, what counts against this somewhat is that it isn’t always easy to hear. The sound design of Ella Catherall is imaginative and well chosen but the balance is lacking right from the start, with Connie Bailie’s Prologue fighting a losing battle against background music.
A scene that suffers particularly is the Capulet party. Once again, the sound design intrigues. The direction is considered, the costumes (by Mary Angélique Boyd) and masks (by Moira Hamilton) are shown off to great effect, but much of the dialogue is simply inaudible.
too quiet
Romeo’s speech on first seeing Juliet is almost completely lost, and Tybalt’s argument with Capulet, with his subsequent determination to seek revenge on Romeo is virtually impossible to hear.
Other scenes have similar problems, and often performers are too quiet and spend too much time facing the back of the stage; audience members without real familiarity with the text will often struggle to understand.
EUSC Romeo and Juliet 2026 Pic Andrew Morris
This is a shame, as some of the performances are very fine indeed. As well as that fluency of language, there is a genuine emotional heft. Sam Gearing’s handwringing Romeo is notably melancholy and death-fixated, while Anya McChristie’s Juliet has a real naturalism and seems thoroughly at ease speaking the verse. It is also noticeable that this production does not shy away from addressing Juliet’s extreme youth.
Rufus Goodman’s Benvolio is conflicted and very human. There is also an unusual degree of realism in Isabella Velarde’s nurse and Will Grice’s hearty Paris. Dylan Kaeuper is a suitably strutting Tybalt and Sebastian Schneeberger’s Prince Escalus has a commendable dignity.
prowls
Noah Sarvesvaren, like all the best Mercutios, prowls the stage as if there is something only he knows. He is another whose verse-speaking is lucid and he has a genuine stage presence.
The production seems to suffer from a surfeit of ideas that are not always integrated. For example, having Montague (Hal Hobson) and Capulet (Tai Remus-Elliot) in white clown make-up and bowler hats suggests a potentially fascinating approach that isn’t necessarily reflected elsewhere. It also works against the way that Remus-Elliot successfully expresses the domestic tyrant side of Capulet. This is echoed by the chilling way Raphaella Hawkins delivers Lady Capulet’s ‘do as thou wilt’ line to her daughter.
EUSC Romeo and Juliet 2026 Pic Andrew Morris
Kent is very keen to foreground both the comedy and the darkness in the play, but they do not always sit well together. This is crystallised in the character of Friar Lawrence, who is played almost entirely for laughs. Hunter King does this effectively, but it is difficult to believe that Romeo, Juliet or anyone else would ever have trusted him in the first place.
The various smaller roles are performed with care by an ensemble who also move furniture efficiently around Ben Kay’s imposing and effective set. Unfortunately, the shifting tends to happen in the closing stages of scenes, which stops the play being even longer but is distracting.
visceral and compelling
The fight sequences, under the direction of Rebecca Mahar, are visceral and compelling. Jack Read’s lighting design is inventive and appropriately sepulchral, but too often the actors find themselves in poorly lit areas.
There are huge numbers of people involved on and off stage in this production, which in the end has just too much going on to cohere. Which isn’t a bad fault as faults go, and there is still much here that works.
Running time: Three hours 15 minutes including one interval
Pleasance Theatre, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ
Monday 9 – Friday 13 February 2026
Daily at 7.30 pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
EUSC Instagram: @eushakespearecompany/
Facebook: @eushakespeare
Production Instagram: @eusc.romeoandjuliet/
Linktree: @eushakepearecompany
Sam Gearing and Hunter King. Pic: Andrew Morris
ENDS
