REVIEW: Romeo & Julie by Gary Owen – Red Stitch


Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Splott.

Romy, a teenage single dad living with his alcoholic mum, meets Julie, a schoolgirl studying Physics for her A-levels, whose parents are desperate for her to get out of Wales and study at Cambridge. They live just around the corner from each other, though Barb (Romy’s mum) talks as though Julie’s family are living a far fancier life in a street full of nice houses.

Barb and Romy live in a bedsit. Romy’s baby is his constant companion and Barb won’t give an inch when he asks her to help out. She’s raised her kids. She’s not raising any more. Barb’s addiction means she is unreliable at the best of times – and she’s not giving up any money, even for nappies, when she can drink it away later.

Julie’s parents, Kath and Col, aren’t that thrilled that she’s seeing a boy while she’s supposed to be studying and when they realise he’s a single-dad, they start to warn her away. This isn’t the star-cross’d crisis of Shakespeare’s tragic love story, but as for all young people, it feels world-shaking when they admit they are in love.

Gary Owen’s text paints an intimate, compelling portrait of two working-class kids trying to feel their way through the world; their parents’ expectations weighing down upon them. Parental pressure isn’t the only thing pulling these two apart, though.

Julie has always dreamed of going to Cambridge. And Romeo is fully committed to his baby daughter – even when Barb tries to convince him to give her up, or he struggles with balancing his commitments to her and his new love, Julie.

Damon Baudin’s Romy is beautifully realised. He juggles the character’s struggles with deftness. He gets to play overwhelmed and flirtatious and sometimes completely lost. We’re with him as he opens his heart and then considers closing it off.

Shontane Farmer’s Julie is forthright and funny – and when she’s bouncing off Baudin’s Romy, they feel pretty well matched. But he’s more confident with the decisions he has made and is making. Julie is struggling with adult life choices and Farmer flounders outside of the young-love repartee the two leads share early on.

It doesn’t help that the parents are thinly drawn and less well realised on stage. Justin Hosking’s early dad-joking portrayal of Col doesn’t really jibe in his later conflict with his daughter, especially when he kicks her out of home. Belinda McClory, not surprisingly, makes Barb worth watching, but there’s nothing about that character that’s particularly memorable. Both Col and Barb make decisions in the play that just don't feel justified by the set-up.

Only Claudia Greenstone’s Kath feels like she goes through an interesting change in how she relates to step-daughter Julie, and a late-play scene of them on the couch talking about the future is very moving.

Sophie Woodward’s set had some nifty surprises; the modular furniture pieces transform between scenes and the walls slowly close in on the characters in the bedsit. But the scene transitions eventually became frustrating. In some moments, the movement in the near-blackouts felt purposeful – sketching in a kind of daily routine, and sometimes they were distractingly fussy. The time it took to change one house into another killed much of the dramatic tension.

Director Kamarra Bell-Wykes is known for creating some striking theatrical work of her own, but working with a finished script from an overseas writer, her direction feels loose and there’s a melancholy tone throughout that feels becomes oppressive. Her work with the younger actors is a highlight, guiding them into finding a way to ignite sparks with a look or the way they hold themselves.

And good on Wykes for making the choice to let the actors keep their own accents, without asking the writer to translate the location to Melbourne or something.

I’m not sure why the playwright decided his homage to young, ultimately tragic love had to be lumbered with almost the same title as Shakespeare's classic. I get the desire to find a modern-day equivalent, but there are so few parallels to the original play that it weighs it down with expectation. At the very least, it prepares us for a downer ending.

Romeo & Julie is funny at times, and moving at others. I’ve never quite seen a character like Romy before and negotiating the early moments of his relationship with Julie is utterly compelling. But unfortunately a captivating central relationship isn’t enough when they are in conflict with archetypal parental figures who don't rise to the occasion.

- Keith Gow, Theatre First

Romeo & Julie is on at Red Stitch until August 18 

Photo: Jodie Hutchinson

Comments