THEATRE REVIEW: Romeo And Juliet - NWTAC Theatre, Moston. Manchester.

North West Theatre Arts Company - NWTAC for short! - is a company of professional, semi-professional, and student / youth actors who perform productions in their home base in Moston, under the leadership of Prab Singh. The theatre is a converted factory unit, and is quite 'bijou'; but you are guaranteed a genuine welcome and friendly smile; and the venue boasts a cafe / snack bar too. 

I have seen a few previous productions from this company, which have been either pantomimes or musicals. This was the first time I had been to watch them perform something classical and 'heavy', and I was uncertain how they would tackle it - but tackle it they did - and I use that word deliberately, since this was a game of football. Instead of Capulets and Montagues, it was a 'home derby', and we had Manchester United versus Manchester City. Director Prab Singh had, knowing his target audience and his youthful cast, sensibly cut back much of the dialogue, and concentrated on the central plot, adding humour and a football theme to create and sustain interest. 

Normally I would baulk at the idea of anything footie related [I go to the theatre to escape football!], but here it worked, and the idea was continued with strip shirts and creative and clever use of footballs on stage. A large screen to the rear of stage left projected images of a football match at the start, and then was used as mobile phone and Skype communciation throughout. Ideally the screen needed positioning a little more centrally as I could see only 2/3rds of it from my seat. If Singh had gone even further with this idea and carried it through to its logical conclusion, the play would have worked much better - however, it would not then have been Romeo And Juliet, but a show BASED on it [think 'West Side Story']. Therefore this mid-way compromise worked effectively in introducing the majority young audience to Shakespeare's most well-known play, but keeping it fresh and relevant too. 

The play, which when performed in its entirety has a running time of over 160 minutes, was reduced here to just 90 minutes but majority of the salient points in the story were still included. My one criticism in this regard was that the message of the ending was not clearly shown. The Friar was allowed no explanation, and more importantly, the two families were not reconciled by the tragedy. The play did not show that those left alive had learned much from this tragedy, and there was no reconciliation between their houses, vowing to not let old enmities and emotions rule lives. I certainly felt there ought to have been the moral - especially for a children's / school version of the play. 

That being said however, what was presented, was presented coherently, effectively, and sincerely. Act one gave us more comedy than one normally would expect from this play, but that was good and handled superbly. I might mention Poppy Evans's determined but comedic squaring up as Benvolio to both Romeo and others using her diminutive size to great effect; whilst Maria Collins gave us an interpretation of Mercutio I have never seen before, but hitting her character square on the head for this production, it was both hilarious and earnest. The second act descended swiftly into the tragedy of the play, and we felt genuinely horrified at Romeo's suicide, the pathos having been built expertly.  

Sound and lighting worked well throughout, and I especially enjoyed the dark blue hues of the tomb in the final scene with the rest of the cast shown in silhouette. That was most effective. 

All-in-all this was an enjoyable and relatable, cleverly simplified / edited version of an English classic, which was contemporary, relevant, and accessible to all, especially the younger generations, and was performed with skill and verve from the whole team from goalkeeper to centre forward!

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 6.5.22