REVIEW: Romeo and Juliet – at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, October 27 to Saturday, November 1, 2014.

THIS take on Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy by one of the UK’s most highly regarded young theatre companies is certainly different and definitely special.

London-based Custom/Practice, together with the Newbury Corn Exchange, has taken the gamble of combining the Bard’s classical spoken work with high energy contemporary street dance. It might so easily have been a disastrous collision but it works so well and with considerable dramatic effect.

C/P’s approach is to bring the best of classical theatre to new and culturally diverse audiences and to throw the challenge down to the more traditional to renew their imaginative engagement with a well-known classical text.

It’s all been underscored with newly commissioned music and linked with the dance elements realised by the creative team behind Olivier award winning Hip Hop dance company Boy Blue – London-based choreographer Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy and composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante.

It is a challenge to throw such thrilling and raw dance sequences into the mix of such a well known traditional work but the dynamics of it all delivers a sheer dose of delight and hardly detracted attention from the text.

Overall it’s energetically engaging entertainment from a group of culturally diverse actors and actresses of considerable talent.

Arun Blair-Mangat and Remmie Milner are excellent as the ill-fated lovers and they are backed by other accomplished performances from the likes of Nathanael Campbell (Benvolio) and Michelle Cornelius (Nurse).

It’s primarily aimed at diverse audiences and should please right across the spectrum.

With so much creative choreography and boundless energy and talent on show it deserved to be seen by far more than the opening night’s pitifully small audience.

If there is a criticism it has to be hurled at the somewhat spartan set which resembled pieces of scrap plyboard nicked off a skip, partially painted and adorned with cheap plastic vines!

Still, it served its purpose and was easily pushed into the background by a cracking company that is just a mere four years old and with a big future in front of it.