REVIEW: Romeo and Juliet - the Worcester Repertory Company at Worcester Cathedral, Tuesday, October 20 until Saturday, Otober 24, 2015.

WE all know what fate awaits the star-crossed lovers but the real tragedy of the night is when Mercutio cops for it.

Yes, it’s a crying shame when Worcester Rep newcomer Kivan Dene finally gets skewered on Tybalt’s sword, because that means the end of the Mercutio show, a non-stop barrage of slapstick that had us all giggling like schoolchildren right up until the end.

This was not so much exit stage left rather exit stage daft. Yes indeed, we really didn’t want him to leave us.

For Romeo’s old mucker Mercutio – prior to being run through – is as mad as a box of frogs, a camp gentleman of Verona, a kind of Tudor Larry Grayson. He was absolutely hysterical, the highlight of the night, a comic island oasis in a sea of doom and misery.

For Dene’s interpretation of the role gives Shakespeare’s play a real lift, helping to dilute some of the over-long speeches that could arguably have got the blue pencil treatment.

After all, director and producer Chris Jaeger did this with The Tempest. Why not with this one?

Further working-over of the chuckle muscles was also provided by Sue Fortune’s take on the nurse, who seems to base her part on Downton Abbey’s downstairs matriarch Mrs Patmore. Again, fabulous stuff.

Now to the terminally lovesick pair. Romeo (Jonny Muir) and Juliet are expertly cast, a dream waiting to become a nightmare.

The former’s floppy-haired, faraway eyed, doomed poet persona is perfectly matched by his Juliet (Brigette Wellbelove), who effortlessly conveys the torment of adolescent first love.

Meanwhile, Rob Leetham’s Friar Lawrence has the look of a man who should never be put in charge of prescriptions at your local chemist.

Finally, a mention of Ben Humphrey’s fight scenes… amazing. On the evidence of this, I’ll never say a bad word about him again.

Romeo and Juliet runs at Worcester Cathedral until Saturday (October 24).

John Phillpott