{"id":1179027,"date":"2026-08-31T13:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1179027\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:56:21","slug":"camden-fringe-2026-romeo-juliet-old-red-lion-playhouse-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1179027\/","title":{"rendered":"Camden Fringe 2026: Romeo. Juliet – Old Red Lion Playhouse, London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: William Shakespeare<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adaptor and Director: Karl Falconer <\/strong><\/p>\n

This inventive, topical adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s famous love story emphasises the play\u2019s ubiquitous violence, the culpability of the adults involved, and the fact that Juliet was only 13. It starts with a shocking crime report: two dead teenagers, one of them wanted for double murder (and did he kill his underage girlfriend too?) Romeo. Juliet replaces \u201cand\u201d with a dot, suggesting the characters\u2019 alienation and perhaps the corrosive horrors of the internet age. The play is part of the Old Red Lion\u2019s SHAKEFEST, which includes a musical based on Pericles and a two-woman Hamlet.<\/p>\n

Tesni Docherty-Bowen is outstanding as a luminous Juliet, her youth reinforced by school uniform and body language. James Sprague is an amiable, troubled Romeo. Amber King plays Juliet\u2019s sprightly nurse and lanyard-bearing Escalus, the play\u2019s despairingly powerless authority figure. Philippe Noel Rose is compelling as Romeo\u2019s borderline-unhinged friend Mercutio.<\/p>\n

The costumes are contemporary and digital imagery is incorporated into Holly Carver\u2019s designs for the staging. Romeo\u2019s first infatuation, Rosaline, seems to be an internet porn star. The young men roam the streets of First-Person-Shooter video games, the teenage lovers message each other (\u201cwher4 rt thou r0meo?\u201d) and communicate with dodgy \u201cFriar\u201d Lawrence via an online relationship advice portal. Sometimes it\u2019s unclear whether characters are meeting in real life or virtually.<\/p>\n

Adaptor-director Karl Falcolner, who plays both Lawrence and bullying Capulet brilliantly, has inevitably cut large sections of text but leaves in extended lyrical speeches that speak to this dark reading of the play. Romeo\u2019s worried father (also Philippe Noel Rose) describes how his troubled son sits alone in his bedroom, curtains drawn:<\/p>\n

\u201cAway\u00a0from\u00a0light\u00a0steals\u00a0home\u00a0my\u00a0heavy\u00a0son
And\u00a0private\u00a0in\u00a0his\u00a0chamber\u00a0pens\u00a0himself,
Shuts\u00a0up\u00a0his\u00a0windows,\u00a0locks\u00a0fair\u00a0daylight\u00a0out,
And\u00a0makes\u00a0himself\u00a0an\u00a0artificial\u00a0night.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are numerous lines like this that justify an interpretation of Romeo and Juliet as a play about the toxic radicalisation of young men and the exploitation of girls. The aggressive, sexualised banter of Romeo and his friends feels freshly minted. Where the play is less successful is in sections of added text whose contemporary register jars with Shakespeare\u2019s poetry. Juliet\u2019s other suitor Paris didn\u2019t want to play football with his dad; Lady Capulet was trafficked; Juliet\u2019s dad began the feud with Montague to distract from his fertility issues\u2026 Jasmine McIvor as both the mothers and Charlie Forrest as Benvolio\/Paris are moving and engaging, but these modern sections sit uncomfortably alongside the original late-16th-century verse. It feels like that awful bit in Tim Burton\u2019s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Willy Wonka is given an invented backstory with a dad who is a dentist.<\/p>\n

The idea that Shakespeare\u2019s play has been misread for centuries is weakened by these interpolated lines, especially when the star-crossed teens start waving knives at each other (\u201cFuck you, no fuck\u00a0you\u201d) in between quoting lines of deathless love poetry. The show\u2019s added frame, a sweetly told story of young love that is real and passionate in its innocence, just adds to the confusion. Robert Icke\u2019s recent Romeo and Juliet, which also had experimental elements, raised Juliet\u2019s age to 16 to avoid modern audiences fixating on the character\u2019s underage status. In Romeo. Juliet, her age is central to a disturbing retelling of the story through a fragmenting contemporary lens.<\/p>\n

Based in north-west England, PurpleDoor theatre company launched in 2008. Their goals, to look again at classic plays and involve talented local actors, are excellent. There is plenty here to engage new audiences, like pulsing dance sections and visceral fight scenes, choreographed by Movement Director Meredith Lewis. The cast and crew are talented, and it will be interesting to see what they tackle next.<\/p>\n

Reviewed on 29 August 2026. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Camden Fringe 2026 runs until 30 August\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t60%<\/p>\n

\t\t\tInternet-age Shakespeare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: William Shakespeare Adaptor and Director: Karl Falconer This inventive, topical adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s famous love story emphasises…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1179028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[319604,748,104389,319605,393,4884,319606,319607,319608,319609,257,319610,319611,319612,6080,183014,319613,2764,16,15,8820],"class_list":["post-1179027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-amber-king","tag-britain","tag-camden-fringe","tag-charlie-forrest","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-holly-carver","tag-james-sprague","tag-jasmine-mcivor","tag-karl-falcolner","tag-london","tag-meredith-lewis","tag-philippe-noel-rose","tag-purpledoor","tag-review","tag-romeo-juliet","tag-tesni-docherty-bowen","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-william-shakespeare"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117190471802797584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1179028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}