The Royal Ballet's
Romeo and Juliet
Nov 5th, 2015
This was my second time seeing The Royal Ballet's version of Romeo and Juliet, and I enjoyed it far more this time. There are certain things that I still wasn't feeling and details I felt were missing, but all in all, this was a better performance of the ballet, which made me like the ballet itself much more than the first time I saw it.
Seat/Venue Review: I sat in C87 Stalls Circle Right, and it was a £35 day seat. It was ok; it's probably the best of the bench seats, but you miss all the action that happens on the far side of the stage, and there's a lot of adjusting around to compensate for other people. ROH is nice as always. Friendly staff, easy to get around. My one issue is the lack of bathrooms on the right side of the theatre. And the exorbitant program costs, but at least they give free cast sheets.
This trip to the ROH was a spontaneous "friends are going and everyone says this girl playing Juliet is amazing so I should go check it out" trip. And boy am I glad I went. I've already talked about the production/set/costumes in my last review here, so now I mostly want to talk about the dancers and this particular performance itself.
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| Matthew Golding and Francesca Hayward (The Guardian) |
Matthew Golding (Canadian! Whoop!) and Francesca Hayward played the title characters. I really, really liked Matthew Golding. He has a very Prince Charming-esque character about him. It totally doesn't hurt that he's quite good looking (and has the Disney Prince hair), but it's mostly in the acting and his relationship with other characters. Golding believably portrayed a wide range of emotions, from cheeky and fun-loving around his friends, to head-over-heels, passionately in love with Juliet, to complete devastation at the death of his friend, to desperation and betrayal at Juliet's 'death'…. and then everything in between. I was so wrapped up in his emotional execution that I really couldn't tell you a whole lot about his dancing. Really nice lines with great legs and feet, big jumps, neat turns - but really, it's the emotions and the feeling that made Golding's performance truly unique and interesting. I wasn't entirely sold on the partnership of Hayward and Golding; she's tiny, and he's very tall, so it looked a bit awkward at times (though he certainly had no problems lifting her, he had to hunch all the way over - with her up en pointe - for the kisses, which looked slightly creepy). Though individually they were both strong emotional dancers, as a pairing I just didn't feel a lot of chemistry.
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| Francesca Hayward as Juliet (roh.org) |
Francesca Hayward was the dancer I've been hearing about for months. Everyone I've talked to has spoken of how wonderful she is, how Juliet is the perfect part for her, etc. That's a lot to live up to, so I was trying not to expect anything too exceptional, especially considering how young Hayward is. Well, she completely lived up to - and then exceeded - the hype. Hayward's Juliet was spritely and charming in the beginning, complete with light-as-a-feather jumps. The nuances and details in the introduction to the character immediately drew you in. Through the ballet, Hayward evolved from the youthful, happy child, to the young woman in love, to the absolute devastation that comes over Juliet by the end. It was a believable development, and you could tell Hayward had put a lot of thought and emotion into her performance. One of my favourite parts was watching Juliet interact with Paris; Hayward started out playfully trying to avoid him, before realising that her parents weren't going to let her get around it, after which she became more dour and unwilling to get too close to him. I like that the emotion the character is feeling extends to every part of her body - face, head, arms, torso, legs - her whole body tells the story. It's not just dancing with the feet, it's with the heart. I can't really comment on Hayward's technique as I was far too focused on her overall performance, but her dancing has a very airy quality. She landed her leaps soundlessly, and the intricate footwork looked precise, yet was executed with apparent ease. Her 'rag doll' at the end - when Juliet is supposedly dead - was perfect; she was entirely limp, and even when being dragged around the floor and tossed around (which according to her, hurts - I'm not surprised), not a muscle twitches. One could truly believe her to be dead. All in all, Hayward was a stellar Juliet. Though very young, she proved herself to be capable of handling the technical and emotional demands of the part better than many seasoned principal dancers. An exquisite young star that we can expect great things from.
Other notable performances came from Marcelino Sambe as Mercutio; from the moment he stepped on stage, you knew who he was. He was cheeky, charming, and delightfully humorous. He captured your attention instantly, which made it quite sad when he died. Last time I saw this ballet at ROH, I had no idea which dancer was Benvolio and which Mercutio until Tybalt killed one of them. The Three Harlots were hilarious; they have little routines in the background choreographed so they're always bugging someone, fighting, waving their skirts around, etc. It's fun to watch. And of course, my favourite part was in the background of the first scene, when a fight erupts in the market place. Way in the back, one guy was beating another guy up with a fake fish. You don't get much better than that.
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| Lauren Cuthbertson and Edward Watson (the Guardian) |
I really enjoyed this performance of Romeo and Juliet, and I wish I could go back and watch it again. If you get the opportunity to watch any of the dancers discussed in the review, do so. It's absolutely worth it.
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