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4th November 2026
“Compelling tension between modernity and tradition”
by Kris Hallett, A Life In Theatre
Photos (c) Craig Fuller
There are few directors alive who have spent more time in Shakespeare’s rehearsal rooms than Gregory Doran. After a lifetime inside these plays, culminating in his tenure leading the RSC, it feels entirely fitting that his Romeo and Juliet for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School begins not in Verona but in a rehearsal room. A floor marked out with tape. Costume pieces waiting to be claimed. Young actors circling one of the most famous stories ever written, trying on characters in the same way they try on bits of costume. It is a concept that sounds self-consciously theatrical on paper, but in practice allows Doran to do what he does best: illuminate Shakespeare through clarity rather than reinvention.
Aldo Vázquez’s design gradually allows two worlds to collide. Contemporary rehearsal clothes, jorts, trainers and vests slowly accumulate ruffs and rehearsal skirts, fragments of Elizabethan costume appearing as though the play is materialising around the actors. The production never fully settles into one aesthetic or another. Instead, we watch a group of performers apparently discovering Shakespeare whilst simultaneously becoming trapped inside it. It creates a compelling tension between modernity and tradition, one that suits a play forever caught between youthful impulsiveness and centuries of theatrical baggage.
The opening brawl captures that balance perfectly. It begins less like a blood feud than a clash between rival football supporters, all bravado, posturing and testosterone, before gradually morphing into something more recognisably Shakespearean. Bins become weapons, broomsticks become rapiers and, importantly, the jokes are allowed to land. Too often Romeo and Juliet is treated as though it arrives pre-loaded with tragedy, but Doran understands that the first half is some of Shakespeare’s most exhilarating comic writing. The innuendo flies thick and fast, the energy never dips and every character appears to possess an inner life beyond their connection to the doomed lovers.
