Northern Ballet Romeo and JulietLeeds Playhouse 20 Jun 2025 19:30
Few people, if any, understood Romeo and Juliet better than Christopher Gable. He and Lynn Seymour had been selected by Kenneth MacMillan to premiere the title roles in MacMillan's new ballet. They were replaced by Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn only because the US impresario Sol Hurok thought that American audiences would flock to see Nureyev and Fonteyn in preference to Gable and Seymour. I saw both Nureyev and Fonteyn and Gable, and Seymour in the late 1960s or early 1970s. While I admired Nureyev and Fonteyn very much, I preferred Gable and Seymour in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet.
Many years after the premiere of MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, Gable became the Artistic Director of the company now known as Northern Ballet. He commissioned a new version of Romeo and Juliet for his company, choosing Massimo Moricone as his choreographer and Lez Brotherston OBE as his designer. Unlike the productions of Krzysztof Pastor and Sir Matthew Bourne, Gable's Romeo and Juliet follows Shakespeare pretty closely, though it has its own features. Each act begins with a clap of thunder. The second act ends with the fall of a beaded curtain representing a hailstorm. Gangs of Capulets dance as cats making soft mewing sounds, while the Montagues present as birds. Mercutio's death throes are quite different in Gable's ballet from his agonies in MacMillan's, where he mistakes a sword for a musical instrument. Juliet witnesses the sword fight between Romeo and Tybalt in Gable's version. I saw Gable's ballet in Sheffield on 4 Apr 2024 and reviewed it in Moriconi and Gable's Romeo and Julietthe next day
I watched Gable's Romeo and Juliet again at Leeds Playhouse on Friday, 20 Jun 2025. One big difference between the performance that I saw in Sheffield last year and last Friday's is that the cast danced to Northern Sinfonietta last year, but to a recording by the Orchestra of the Slovak National Theatre on Friday. I have to say that I liked the sound of the Slovak orchestra very much. If a company has to dispense with live musicians, a recording of the Slovak National Theatre musicians was probably the next best choice. But ballet is a three-way communication between dancers, musicians and audience. Something is lost when a conductor and orchestra are absent.
Romeo was danced by Joseph Taylor on Friday. He is currently the company's only premier dancer. It goes without saying that he would have understood his role well. He performed it with virtuosity and flair. Juliet was Alessandra Bramante, who happens to be Italian. She brought a freshness and energy to that role. Mercutio was danced again by Jun Ishi. He first came to my attention in that role last year. I was impressed with him then, and I remain impressed this year. Harry Skoupas was a menacing Tybalt this year. Last year he had been Paris. Harriet Marden was a passionate Lady Capulet,
At the reverence, several members of the audience rose to their feet. I counted 20 dancers at the curtain call. That's not a big cast, but they gave the impression of a big full-length production.
Northern Ballet Romeo and JulietSheffield Lyceum Theatre 4 April 2024 14:00
Northern Ballet has two fine productions of Romeo and Juliet in its repertoire. One was created by Jean-Christophe Maillot which I reviewed in Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good wayon 8 March 2015 and Romeo and Juliet after the Shrewon 15 Oct 2016. The other was choreographed by Massimo Moricone and directed and devised by Christopher Gable. Moricone and Gable's was premiered in 1992 to considerable critical acclaim but it had not been performed for many years. It was revived in Leeds last month and is now on the second stage of a nationwide tour. I watched the matinee performance of the ballet in Sheffield yesterday.
There are many different versions of Romeo and Juliet inthe world's ballet companies Some like Lavrovsky's and MacMillan's follow Shakespeare quite closely. Others like Pastor's and Sir Matthew Bourne's leave Shakespeare way behind. Moricone and Gable's followed the play faithfully as can be seen from the "Romeo & Juliet Story" page on Northern Ballet's website but there were some original details that enhanced the understanding of the story. In Juliet's bedroom, the nurse reminds Juliet that she is growing up by pointing to changes in her body. In Act II Mercutio is provoked into challenging Tybalt because Tybalt drags a young woman by her hair. I do not know whether those touches were suggested by the choreographer or director but Gable will have developed an intimate understanding of Romeo and Juliet from dancing the lead role with Lynn Seymour in MacMillan's work.
Yesterday's cast included both premier dancers of the company as well as my first choices for the lead roles. When I had the opportunity to learn Juliet's dance at KNT's choreographic intensive in 2016, our teacher Jane Tucker, who had danced in the same production of the ballet, set the scene as follows:
"You are 12 years old. This is your first ball. You are so excited you can hardly contain yourself. All eyes are on you. You want everybody to be you."
I have seen many Juliets in my time including Fonteyn and Seymour and while they have dazzled me I have never been able to think of them as 12-year-olds. Sarah Chun did remind me of that little girl bubbling with excitement and playfully teasing her nurse as she prepared for that first grown-up ball, Similarly, Jonathan Hanks with his youthful features was ideally cast for Romeo. In the play, those kids grow up almost overnight and so did Chun and Hanks in the ballet. They are both remarkable dance actors. I really warmed to them. I see that in her bio Sarah Chun said that Juliet would be her dream role. Yesterday, she lived that dream and she was brilliant.
An important role but one which is often discounted is the nurse or as we would describe her nowadays the nanny. She appears in all three acts and she has to project all kinds of emotions from playfulness in the first bedroom scene and she romps around with her young charge to fear as she tries to protect Juliet from her grief-stricken and angry parents. Her role was danced by Harriet Marden. She has been in the company for some time and I must have seen her countless times but this is the first time I have mentioned her in my reviews but I am sure it will not be the last. I shall now be looking out for her. She showed considerable talent as a character dancer. I loved the way she crossed herself before she grabbed Juliet's note from between the thighs of one of Romeo's buddies.
It was a treat to see Abigail Prudames, one of my favourite dancers in the company. I have watched her progress through the company's ranks with great satisfaction. She danced Lady Capulet with exceptional energy and passion. Her anger upon learning of Tybalt's death in his duel with Romeo was palpable.
Tybalt was danced by Joseph Taylor (another artist I have long admired) who portrayed his character perfectly. Having met him in real life I know that he is anything but the privileged, headstrong, thuggish young blade who received his comeuppance after bullying young women and knifing Mercutio when he was off his guard but Taylor projected that character faultlessly, He is a great dance-actor as well as a virtuoso.
One other artist who deserves special mention is Jun Ishi who danced Mercutio. Again this is the first time that I have mentioned that artist in my reviews but it will not be the last as I shall follow his career with interest in the future. The audience gasped with relief as he rose to his feet after the stabbing. We relaxed as he took a swig from a bottle. We despaired as he sank lifeless to the floor.
Everybody in the cast performed well and if I mentioned every member by name this review would resemble a telephone directory. All I can do is to congratulate everyone in the show on a magnificent spectacle.
It was of course not just the dancers who made it a good show. I have already mentioned Gable and Moricone but I should not forget John Longstaff There were several details in the music which reinforced the story which I had not noticed in other productions. I am not sure whether the peel of thunder immediately before the overture was part of the orchestration or Gable's direction. I was a little discombobulated when I first heard it but it made perfect sense in the context of the hail storm at the end of Act II.
I must also praise Lez Brotherston's designs. The opening scene featured a fragment of the maxim "Amor vincit omnia" which of course is the theme of the ballet. Love did not quite conquer all from the point of view of the young lovers though maybe it did eventually in the embrace of Lords Capulet and Montague just before the curtain fell. I learnt for the first time from the programme that many of the costumes from the original show had been destroyed or damaged in the flood. I know that Peter Pan had been lost but I was not aware that Romeo and Juliet had also been affected. It required a major effort to restore the ballet and it says a lot for a company that undertook that work.
I first got to know Northern Ballet Theatre when Christopher Gable danced with Moira Shearer in The Simple Man. Some of my favourite works were created while Gable was the Artistic Director of the company and I have always regarded that time as a golden age, It gives me great pleasure to see Romeo and Juliet again and I am very much looking forward to watching A Christmas Carol in November.
