"Romeo & Juliet/Macbeth" by William Shakespeare.

Bard In The Yard.

Nottingham Shakespeare Company.

Castle Rock Brewery Yard, Nottingham.

Shakespeare wrote plays to be performed in the open air for the man in the street, and I love that the Nottingham Shakespeare Company keep that tradition alive by performing in various open air spaces, bringing the Bard's work to anyone and everyone, and all for free because they love what they do.

You can always guarantee that when they take on a piece of work by Shakespeare, they put their own stamp on it, which makes for an interesting and easy to understand piece of theatre, These two pieces are no different, especially in this abridged form.

These two classics, performed at the Castle Rock Brewery Yard, close their current 2025 mini tour, so I was very pleased that I managed to fit both in the one sitting. Thankfully the weather was kind to the group and, despite some blustery gusts of wind, which saw the company having to change parts of their "backstage gazebo area", there was only one other thing that threatened to derail their performances, but more of that later when the old showbiz adage, "the show must go on", certainly came into play.

Five actors performed all the roles, the same in both performances, often having just enough time to disappear behind the gazebo and walk out the other side in a change of outfit to depict another character, en route adding make up when required.

I've seen the Nottingham Shakespeare Company perform both these plays previously but this time around I could see that some clever directorial work had been added to make both slightly different to the other productions of these plays I'd seen, keeping them fresh and as if this one was the first time of watching.

"Romeo & Juliet" started off as not being an out and out tragedy but was liberally interspersed with great big dollops of comedy and bawdiness. This lead to the scenes of true tragedy with the bloody murders of Tybalt and, as we all know then Juliet's faux suicide and then Romeo's suicide. 

Image wise Romeo, played by Lachlan Charles, is a cross between the cool of James Dean crossed with the goofiness of Danny Zuko from "Grease", complete with leather jacket and quiff. There was even a line from Romeo advising Nurse, played by Michelle Bard, not to mess with his hair. There are bawdy jokes about erections and virginity and the spirit of naughty fun is sustained by Romeo and Benvolio’s jokes, as well as the Nurse’s ribald talk later on.

Esther Warren is a perfect Mercutio, who often steals the scenes wonderfully, especially with his witty put downs and comments.

Friar Lawrence, played by Ken Ogborn, is a kindhearted cleric who helps Romeo and Juliet throughout the play. He performs their marriage and gives generally good advice, especially in regard to the need for moderation, but as we all know has ulterior motives for this.

Juliet is played by Emma Webber, in a direct opposition to the role that she plays in "Macbeth". Often the role of Juliet is played with great naivety but this characterisation is of a modern woman who takes charge of what she wants, and that's not the arranged marriage sorted by her Father, also played by Esther Warren. 

There's a lot of physicality in all of these roles, especially with the sword and knife choreography, and there's a lot of being thrown to the floor, and it's one of those parts where Emma took a bad fall and caused damage to her wrist. You could see that the fall was not as choreographed but Emma concealed the pain throughout the first play, and it was only in the interval between the two plays that I was told of the extent of that bad fall. However, that showbiz adage now came into play with Emma receiving medical attention and strapped up, along with painkillers, she carried on valiantly with her role as Lady Macbeth in the second play.

Lady Macbeth is a passionate and fiery woman; if you caught a previous production of "Macbeth" by Nottingham Shakespeare Company, you'd have seen the extent of that passion and power she held over her husband. That passion and power was all in this version of Lady Macbeth as she dominated the stage (concrete yard) with eyes that blazed.

Ken Ogborn was on the receiving end of Lady Macbeth's power and passion; at times I thought that the bucket of water in the backstage gazebo area may have been to throw over them to cool their ardour.

Lachlan, Michelle and Esther played several roles over the two plays, but each time they switched character, they made sure that you knew who they were playing with no blurring of the edges, often with just a change of costume. I must though highlight the three witches, played by Lachlan, Emma and Esther, whose voice transformation at one stage was almost unearthly.

Anyone may have thought that having the sides of the backstage gazebo taken off - due to the wind whipping around the sides and it being in danger of heading into the stratosphere - may have tempted the audience member's eyes to stray to what was happening in that area. That was no temptation for me because when you have the hypnotising qualities of the centre stage actors up front and central, they made sure that all eyes were on them.

Brilliantly directed and choreographed, the costumes are excellent - special mention must go to the Nurse's 1950's outfit and Juliet's black Marilyn Monroe-esque dress - as are the props, staging, make up and some very real looking fake blood, which actually looked like real blood.

I love Shakespeare, but would not profess to know that much about every play he wrote, or understand everything that he wrote, but in the hands of this company, you don't need to know everything about the plays or understand every word spoken because they bring the Bard's humour or tragic stories to a level that everyone can appreciate and follow.

Looking around the audience for both plays and there were people of my age, as well as young children, and it's the younger audience members who sat there with their mouths open, faces transfixed on the cast's incredible storytelling and performance skills. And when you see the young ones mesmerised in stories over 400 years old, you know that you're doing something right and you have them hooked and their love of Shakespeare has just been germinated.

If you see anything advertised by the Nottingham Shakespeare Company that they are doing, make a note in your diary because their shows are of the highest quality and are not to be missed. They perform for free but donations, however small, are always welcomed at the end of the performances, where you also get the chance to chat with the actors as well. Michelle told the crowd that they receive no help from funding from Nottingham Arts Council, the funding this year was 100% retracted, but this, and many other groups have to fund their own shows, and that's not cheap when you consider rehearsal space, props, costumes etc, so any donations, which you can also make through their website, all help, meaning that they can continue to produce quality shows for free.

Sunday afternoon saw five very talented actors perform several varied characters in two classic Shakespearian plays. Personally, I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd have rather have been this afternoon.