PRINCIPAL CAST: David Dawson (Romeo); Mark Holgate (Tybalt); Julie Legrand (Nurse); Anneika Rose (Juliet); Gyrui Sarossy (Mercutio).

This production toured in the UK between October and November 2008 before running at the Courtyard Theatre from 27 November 2008 - 24 January 2009.

"It's always a disquieting sign when a production of Romeo and Juliet plays fast and loose with the balcony scene. Admittedly, the First Quarto makes no mention of said structure, but the text is clear about a window, Juliet is at it, and Romeo is looking up. In Neil Bartlett's workaday revisiting of fair Verona, Anneika Rose's Juliet bounces about on a bed while David Dawson as Romeo stands a couple of metres away and does complicated things with his eyes to imply some sort of middle distance....Dawson captures Romeo's febrile anguish nicely but his performance lacks shading and variety of tone. Rose misguidedly gives her Juliet a default setting of stroppy sulkiness; it's unclear why this Romeo wouldn't stick with Rosaline. None of the supporting cast makes a strong impression, which means the nearly three-and-a-half-hour running time hangs very heavily. The RSC can - and indeed have, with a glorious recent slate of comedy and tragedy - do much better than this. [probably a reference to Gregory Doran's productions of Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labour's Lost, also in this database]"  ~ Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard, 8 December 2008, in Theatre Record 2008, Issue 25 - 26