THE idea of turning Shakespeare’s tale of forbidden love on its head by having the lovers as ageing parents in a care home could, in theory, work well, given that we can fall in love at any age, though we may be discouraged from doing so by our children.
Here, the idea is put into practice by TFT, who, having diligently crafted their own script from the Bard’s exquisite poetry, then unfortunately allowed the youthful elements of the story to dominate the evening.
As the senior lovers, Frances Patterson (Juliet) and Andrew Bumfrey (Romeo) spoke increasingly slowly, at times almost inaudibly, and with little evident characterisation. The other residents of the care home (‘Verona’) fared no better and it was left to the Nurse (an amusing Hannah Woods) and Juliet’s Fawlty-esque son (Dan Scott) to inject some life into an overlong evening that needed a firmer hand at the helm.
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