"Northern Ballet's Romeo & Juliet"

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Ballet, as we all know, is one of the most powerful forms of theatre and dance. The ability to tell a story without uttering a word and to evoke such emotion from silent story-telling is a real art, and these performers are true artists, as well as being athletes of the stage.

The physical strength of the male dancers, as they whisk their partners in the air and hold them aloft, is truly spectacular and quite breathtaking. These dancers tell the classic Shakespearian tragedy with comedy and emotion. 

Everyone knows the story of this Shakespearian tragedy, so I won't go into the whole story; what I will do though is highlight the characters that Shakespeare created.

I don't need to individually praise these dancers because with any ballet company such as Northern Ballet, you can count on these performers being of the best quality, otherwise they would not be employed by such prestigious companies such as this.

Romeo, played by Joseph Taylor, is the son of Lord and Lady Montague. He is a handsome and free-spirited young man. His family are trapped in a long feud with the Capulet family. He is passionate, often acts impulsively and falls in love with Juliet – the daughter of his family’s rivals.

Abigail Prudames plays Juliet is the daughter of Lord and Lady Capulet. Juliet is a beautiful, headstrong, and passionate young woman. She quickly falls in love with Romeo when they first meet at the Capulet ball and becomes torn between her family and duty to them.

Mercutio is one of Romeo’s closest friends, Mercutio is loyal and quick to help his friend whenever necessary. Known for his wit and imagination, but also his hot headedness Mercutio, played by Harris Beattie, often finds himself swept up by quarrels in the marketplace. There's a good deal of sauciness with this Mercutio, often including Juliet's Nurse, all of which adding to the humour.

Friar Lawrence, played by George Liang, is a Franciscan monk, and a trusted advisor of both Juliet and Romeo. He wants peace to be restored between the Montagues and Capulets, and also provides a possible answer to Juliet's arranged marriage with Paris; but we all know how that ends!

Tybalt, played by Harry Skoupas, one of the most recent dancers to join Northern Ballet, is the nephew to Lord and Lady Capulet, Tybalt is proud and vain but also protective over his cousin Juliet. He is often hot-headed, quick to draw his sword and is often the one leading the battles against the Montagues.

Filippo Di Vilio is Benvolio, a close friend of Romeo and is the peacemaker out of the three friends. He is always at hand to support Romeo and stand by his side.

Jackson Dwyer plays Count Paris who is a suitor to Juliet, and we first meet him when he asks Lord Capulet for permission to marry Juliet.

The Nurse, played by Dominique Larose, works in the Capulet household and has cared for Juliet since she was a baby. She passes letters between Romeo and Juliet and is the person who Juliet confides in the most. You can see this in the way that Juliet playfully teases her at the start. The Nurse is quite a bit older than Juliet and the physicality employed by Dominique to show the age difference is a real treat to see.

Lord Montague, played by Andrew Tomlinson, is Romeo’s father. He is the sworn enemy of the Capulets and concerned for Romeo’s safety.

Jonathan Hanks plays Lord Capulet is head of the family; he has a fiery temper and intends for his daughter Juliet to marry Count Paris. He is protective over Juliet and is the sworn enemy of the Montagues.

Lady Capulet, played by Helen Bogatch, is the wife to Lord Capulet. Lady Capulet is keen for her daughter to marry Count Paris.

These are the artists performing the Nottingham leg of the tour.

This production also features children from Gedling Ballet School, and what a treat this must be for them to be able to perform and learn from these dance masters.

Directed and devised by Christopher Gable CBE and choreographed by Massimo Moricone. I don't have the required technical knowledge surrounding ballet to even comment on these areas. I only know that I simply adored this production, I love ballet, full stop, and Christopher and Massimo gave me the best start to the week I could hope for. If it were possible to float inches off of the floor on my way home after attending this show, then that would have been me.

Conducted by Daniel Parkinson and the Orchestra is led by Geoffrey Allan. I know that at some venues the music is recorded, but we are so lucky to be able to hear the full beauty of listening to a live orchestra whilst Northern Ballet are performing in Nottingham.

You really can't beat hearing and seeing a live orchestra, but there may be a time where the sounds you hear will be recorded. There will be members of the orchestra in front of the theatre handing out leaflets and available to tell you more about this before the performances.

If you want a production with great beauty, passion, drama, dynamism, excitement, then this is the production for you. You also get to experience the beauty of Prokofiev's music, including the rousing "Dance Of The Knights", which you'll recognise as the theme to "The Apprentice".

"Romeo and Juliet" by Northern Ballet is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 4 May.

Photos by Amy Nuttall.