#robert icke

Review of 'Romeo & Juliet' by William Shakespeare, dir. Robert Icke in Harold Pinter Theatre, London

Romeo and Juliet, the star-crossed lovers, a tale of teenage love and the tragic end that we all know so well… So, is there really something new one can show? Oh, you bet!

Youthful, wide-eyed obsession, first-love butterflies and the audience find themselves leaning closer, rooting for the lovers, even though we all know the outcome.

What makes this version to stand out is: the ‘what if’ scenarios woven into the plot of the well-known tale.  It makes it so much more than a teenage love, it goes deeper, it CUTS deeper as the time is ticking away towards the inevitable.

What if the tragic lovers got the treatment other Shakespeare’s couples got? A Deus ex Machina, last second salvation? The time for a happy ending? But we all know that Romeo is fortune’s fool, don’t we?

And speaking of fools. Mercutio. Not your typical jester figure and yet there he is. Making a joke of everything, laughing at life, making a fool of himself and his friends. Delightfully insane. Or so one thinks. But his are the words of wisdom (and truth): ‘[…] the dreamers often lie.’.

Kasper [Hilton-Hille] is an absolute gem. His Mercutio is an unhinged drunk, nonchalant, flamboyant boy with a flair for the dramatic. He lives his life large, experiencing it at its fullest and for this he pays the highest price. ‘Plague o’both your houses!’ becomes his ultimate revenge.

Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink perfectly navigate the childish giddiness of falling in love for the first time, the grand emotions tearing through bodies along with buzzing hormones, the feeling (and experiencing) everything so deep you can almost touch the actual emotion they play.

The stage design: moving panels/screens divide, open and shrink spaces. Time ticks away on multiple (and multiplying) digital clocks shown on these screens. The urgency, the fleeting moments are hanging above everyone’s head like a sword of Democles. And at the centre: the bed. Burying the sorrows, hiding lovers, witnessing the euphoria of a first love. The centre of the universe for an adolescent life: the sleeping in, the staying up late daydreaming, shedding tears into patient pillows, sheets barely covering young bodies in the heat of the moment, shaped with [wet] dreams and feeling things too strong: being it finality and doomsday of every decision and choice (no matter how small or big) or intensity of passion and falling in love for the very first time (the first love, the lost love, the one that have gotten away that becomes a story at later stages of out lives, one that we come back to reminisce the happy times).

And a treat for a front row, because, after all: ‘All world’s a stage’, so Noah [Jupe] spends some time right in front of the first row, wooing Juliet, since it becomes the space under Juliet’s balcony, the physical barrier dividing him from Capulet’s house. Fourth wall disappears (and screens mounted on the sides for the audience sitting higher or further away, or with an obstructed view show what is going on there).

But no matter the amount of [violent] delight, we all know that the violent end awaits. And a phantom of a life not lived looms over more tragic, more sorrowful, more haunting than ever. Under Robert Icke’s direction the cast and the play leave the audience choke on tears and gasps as the time runs out and all fade to black.

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Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, dir. Robert Icke in Harold Pinter Theatre, London

Cast: Jamie Ankrah, Dylan Corbett-Bader, Eden Epstein, Alex Felton, Clark Gregg, Ada Grey, Kasper Hilton-Hille, Aruna Jalloh, Noah Jupe, John Marquez, Caroline Moroney, Clare Perkins, David Shelley, Lewis Shepherd, Sadie Sink, Alexander Uzoka and Mark Strong (voice of Prince)

Thu 19 Mar - Sat 20 Jun 2026

OEDIPUS written and directed by Robert Icke after Sophocles: Reportedly some audiences have gasped at the big revelation at the conclusion of Icke’s modernized, very free adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy. My audience in the mezzanine was much more literate. They laughed at some of the play’s foreshadowing, as when someone suggests Jocasta can’t understand Oedipus’ family history because she’s not his flesh and blood. Oddly, there was no response when Jocasta said to Oedipus, “You’ll be the death of me.” Maybe that was just a little too spot on.

Icke has reset the ancient myth in the world of modern politics. Oedipus (Mark Strong) is a foreigner who is campaigning to lead the government with the help of his brother-in-law (John Carroll Lynch) and his wife (Lesley Manville), widow of an earlier leader who had died under mysterious circumstances.  As his victory seems assured, his mother (Anne Reid) insists they have a private conversation, and a member of a psychic cult (Samuel Brewer) predicts that Lynch will soon reign because Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. The psychic is the current play’s only foray into the supernatural. Icke instead presents very real modern equivalents of the events in Oedipus’ back story, with some bearing uncomfortable parallels to contemporary politics. That, of course, underlines the fact that whatever crimes Oedipus may have committed, albeit crimes committed in ignorance, he’s far superior to some contemporary world leaders who believe responsibility only applies to welfare mothers.

This is all tremendously powerful. I’ve taught the Sophocles original more times than I can remember, and I never thought it could move me to tears, but this version did. That’s in large part due not just to Icke’s re-casting of the story and effective stage pictures but also the work of a terrific ensemble. Strong is a powerful actor capable of both fury and great intimacy. There is just a hint early on of the ego that led to his failure to anticipate all the consequences of his actions, but there’s also a fascinating bon homie that in some ways resembles our own President Obama. Manville matches him at every turn and electrifies the audience with a shattering monolog explaining Oedipus’ birth. And Creon is a perfect fit for Lynch, an actor best known for his television work, who here eauals his co-stars for size and emotional depth.