Perhaps one of the most famous tragedies of all time, William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet plays at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and truly embraces its Mancunian location with this tale of the two star-crossed lovers, being set within the streets of Manchester.

For anyone not familiar with the Shakespearean story, the tale tells of two powerful feuding families: the Montagues and the Capulets. After gatecrashing a Capulet party with his friends, young Romeo Montague lays eyes on Juliet Capulet, the daughter of his family’s enemy, and the pair fall in love at first sight. After declaring their love for one another, the young lovers discover each other’s true identity and despite this, arrange in secret to marry. However, the feud between the two families intensifies and leads to bloodshed, murder, and the banishment of Romeo. As Juliet’s family attempt to marry her off to Paris, the Friar comes up with a ruse for Juliet to fake her own death so that she can escape the arrangement and reunite with her love Romeo, but before the Friar can write to Romeo to inform him of the ruse, Romeo is informed of Juliet’s death and is utterly broken. Young Montague comes to lay with his beloved wife for one last time and poisons himself so that he can be with her. Juliet awakens only moments too late and discovers her husband in her arms, and so she decides to take her own life so that she may escape her own reality and be with her Romeo.

Most often, Shakespeare’s words are spoken in RP (Received Pronunciation); the accent that is traditionally seen as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken English. Since this rendition of Romeo & Juliet is set in the city of Manchester, the director has opted for the play to be performed in regional Mancunian accents. In a delightfully strange way, the Shakespearean language sounds perfect when spoken in this regional accent, as if Shakespeare himself had written the dialogue specifically for this choice.

Director Nicholai La Barrie has utilised the in-the-round performance space of the Royal Exchange Theatre (including its audience members at times) well and the set pieces - designed by the company Good Teeth - really adds to that; the central structure which lowers from above to become the balcony and the section of stage floor that raises up to act as both a bed and an alter are both cleverly designed and used with the performance. Surrounding the stage area are an assortment of speakers, some hollowed out and most covered in moss – other than giving extra levels for actors to stand upon, this particular part of the set design doesn’t seem to add anything to the production and there isn’t any apparent significance of the speakers. There are also a couple of occasions whereby transitions between scenes feel as though the theatre is being left in blackout for ever so slightly too long.

However, the designers have collaborated with the director, lighting designer Azusa Ono and sound designer Mark Melville to create the most breathtaking and visually stunning moments in the production for the funeral of Juliet. The use of rain machines, haze, lighting and sound effects, and the staging all work together to bring this beautiful yet sombre moment of the production to fruition.

The entire cast of Romeo & Juliet, accompanied by some of the Royal Exchange Theatre community company members, demonstrate phenomenal acting to tell this classic tragedy. In particular, Conor Glean and Shalisha James-Davis in the titular roles of Romeo and Juliet have a wonderful chemistry between them, and the relationship between the characters really builds in a realistic and captivating way, evoking an emotional response from the audience. Even though everyone knows how their story ultimately ends, Glean and James-Davis have audiences rooting for the star-crossed lovers and hoping for an alternative ending to the inevitable tragedy.

Connecting to its local community with the relocation of the story to Manchester, the Royal Exchange Theatre’s new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is a beautifully tragic production with outstanding performances from the whole cast. Whether you are a Shakespeare fanatic or not, you simply must catch this rendition of Romeo & Juliet – it’d be a tragedy to miss it.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Jess Dalloway

Romeo & Juliet plays at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre until 18 November, with further information here.