Romeo and Juliet (OUDS)

I don't often blog about amateur productions, but I increasingly feel the amateur/professional division in theatre is meaningless and artificial.  It's a barrier that doesn't exist in music, and at the Edinburgh Fringe there's no distinction.  Occasionally I'm lucky enough to see a Shakespeare production by amateurs that leaves professional theatre standing. Highly intelligent student actors sometimes do Shakespeare better because they lack that layer of polish applied at drama school, possibly because they are younger, and possibly because they engage more intensely with the meaning of the play.  Last night I was in the church of St Mary-le-Bow in London to see the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) deliver a production of Romeo and Juliet that really fizzed.  They're off to Japan next month, with four performances in Oxford this week.  Despite the terrible church acoustics and a few cuts in the text, this was the best R&J I can remember seeing.  Student actors can often show real understanding of Shakespeare's words, but aren't quite experienced enough to express themselves in movement from the neck downwards.  But this brisk-paced production, directed by Piers Barclay in 1920s style, is exceptional for the quality of the stage movement, including a vibrant ball scene in which the cast dance the Charleston, excellent stage fights and a love scene between Romeo and Juliet that is elegant and passionate. Grown-up actresses notoriously struggle with the role of the 14-year-old Juliet, but Corinne Sawers effortlessly suggests a wide-eyed gauche teenager emerging from childhood and plunging into her first romance.  Romeo, surprised by his own lapse into violence when he kills Tybalt, is played with great sensitivity by Tom Palmer.  I also particularly liked Anna Tierney's bossy and perfectly poised Lady Capulet and the menacing quality which Matt Lacey brings to Tybalt.  As director, Piers Barclay has the knack of getting the best out of his talented cast while not going OTT.  The 1920s setting with its 'bright young things' is well chosen and the idea of having the chorus played by a housemaid in white pinafore (Anna Chojnicka) shows a deft touch.  The Japanese will love it, and anyone who is in Oxford between July 30 and August 2 can catch one of four performances in the Queen's College Provost's Garden.  Back in the late 1960s, I acted there myself a couple of times in college plays, but certainly not in anything as good as this.