Theatreguide.London
www.theatreguide.london
The Theatreguide.London Review
Romeo
And Julie
Dorfman
Theatre Spring 2023
Being a young working class parent can be difficult. Gary Owen’s very moving and funny play Romeo and Julie, set in the Splott district of Cardiff, opens with a small illustration of this as the eighteen year old single father Romeo tries to change the very messy nappy of his baby daughter.
Exhausted by the constant demands of a small child and living with an alcoholic mother, he takes a well needed nap in a local library, where he comes to the attention of Julie looking for a quiet spot to study A Level Physics.
She asks him how long he’s been homeless, his dishevelled state suggesting to her that he must live on the streets.
The entertaining banter that follows generates a friendship, and soon she is offering to babysit for him.
A private school student, Julie has been enthusiastic about physics since the age of 12, with expectations that she will secure a place at Cambridge University. That’s something her working class parents are also keen on, given their own harsh experience of working class jobs.
Her dad has severely damaged lungs from his employment and her mum is desperately stressed and overworked by an agency that employs her as a care worker.
As the relationship of Julie and Romeo becomes romantic, they have to make a hard decision. Do they give up on higher education and try to raise a family in his mum’s house in Splott, or do they separate so she can go to Cambridge?
This is a riveting and well-performed show, tightly directed by Rachel O’Riordan, with very believable witty amusing banter from Julie and Romeo.
Callum Scott Howells is vocally and physically impressive as the world-weary Romeo, while Rosie Sheehy as the confident sparky Julie takes us on an emotional roller coaster.
Sadly, Romeo and Julie is a very real glimpse of the difficult lives faced by young working class people in a Britain where social support is becoming rare.
Keith
McKenna
|
Receive
alerts
every time we post a new review
|