| “Cardiff Is In For a Treat” |
At the Sherman |
| Romeo and Julie- Five London Critics at Gary Owen Play , Sherman Theatre , April 20, 2023 |
The full line by the London reviewer read: “The best working class romance since “Beautiful Thing”. Cardiff is in for a treat.” “Beautiful Thing” was written in 1993 and gets a revival this autumn at Stratford East. The company that assembles in Cardiff for the next two weeks after its London run is well-known. Anita Reynolds was once the White Witch of Narnia, described as “in flowing white robes, all beguiling and underlying menace.” Hayley Grindle made a set of wonder for “the Borrowers.” Rosie Sheehy was an award-winner in Tamara Harvey's “Uncle Vanya.” Catrin Aaron, a regular at Mold, was hardly offstage when she had the lead role in the revival of “Gaslight.” Callum Howells was still a teenager when he was in “Blackout” for NT Connections; the review on this site saw “a performance of ferocious impact.” * * * * The London production was universally well received. Nick Curtis wrote for the Evening Standard: “In Gary Owen’s sparky, working-class Welsh riff on Shakespeare’s play, the lovers are challenged by the realities of early parenting, rather than by warring parents. Here, Romeo is an 18-year-old, unemployed single dad, learning on the job how to raise his baby daughter Niamh, with little help from his alcoholic mum Barb. “You’re a child yourself,” Barb sneers in a sober moment, insisting the girl is put up for adoption. “Julie is perhaps one rung further up Cardiff’s social ladder, with a loving dad and stepmum. She’s massively bright, and destined to study Physics at Cambridge. Until, that is, she and Romeo are hijacked and derailed by biology. They fall for each other, and for the idea of a nuclear family. “Owen’s tart wit is well served by Rachel O’Riordan’s brisk and economical production. And by the zesty performances of Rosie Sheehy and Callum Scott Howells, who have great chemistry in the lead roles.” * * * * Paul T Davies was there for British Theatre: ““Gary Owen’s magnificent new play centres on a specific area of Cardiff, Splott. Owen knows the blood that pumps through it. Romeo is an eighteen-year-old single dad, determined to bring up his baby daughter and, in a gorgeous reversal of expectations, love shines out of him for that baby girl, no toxic masculinity here. His mother is “a massive alcoholic”, and when Julie first meets him in a café, she thinks he is a homeless person. She is on her way to Cambridge University, her ambition to be an astrophysicist sparked in her when she was twelve. They only live a couple of streets apart, but worlds away in class and expectations. “...The cast are outstanding. As Romeo, Callum Scott Howells twists his body along with the elongated vowels and twangs of a very specific Welsh accent, heart-breaking in his gentleness and need for a better future, devoted to his daughter and then to Julie. “Rose Sheehy is whip smart as Julie, determined to succeed, lacking a sense of reality, they both perfectly hit the humour of the play as well as the sadness. By the time, in the first half, they get to Netflix and chill and coconut oil, you’re totally in love with both. As Barb, Catrin Aaron pitches her judgey alcoholism perfectly, never once sliding into caricature, in fact some of her opinions are very wise. “...This is not an angry play, and more powerful for that, passion runs through it, and it is deeply moving. “Rachel O’Riordan, time and time again shows what an astute director she is, the play breathes beautifully.” * * * * Susannah Clapp at the Observer: “Owen’s speech is direct; his subject is important. In a Cardiff suburb teenagers meet. She, studying physics at a strong local comprehensive (she is to find out from a posh girl that this does not count as a “good school”), aims to be the first in her family to go to university. He is bringing up his baby single-handed alongside his alcoholic mother: he is first seen wiping poo from the infant’s chubby folds. If the lovers are to stay together, one of them will have to give up the life they have clung to. “This could so easily have been programmatic: a right-minded, much-needed but doctrinaire screed about the howling inequities of the education system. Yet Rachel O’Riordan’s production drums with urgency. Hayley Grindle’s design hangs a tangle of neon – astronomical algebra – over the action; rock thumps between scenes. Rosie Sheehy always brings an extraordinary gleam to the stage: it shows here as angry intelligence and ambition shot through with tremblings. Callum Scott Howells – recently the Emcee in Cabaret – is equally compelling: gormless and passionate, trapped and doting. They have fine support from Catrin Aaron as the addicted mother. The setting, too, has especial resonance. Last week Trouble in Butetown, last year The Corn Is Green. Wales is becoming a place for the stage to consider fractures and injustices in the Un-United Kingdom. * * * * Alice Saville wrote for Time Out: “Instead of centring the push and pull of romantic love, Owen ingeniously charts another tug of war: the one between achieving your personal dreams, and sacrificing yourself for your family. His 18-year-old Romeo (Callum Scott Howells) has nobly chosen to put aside his own ambitions in favour of dealing with his baby daughter’s ‘poonamis’, with little help from his alcoholic mother Barb (the drily hilarious Catrin Aaron), who’s always minutes away from calling social services. “But Julie’s dreams are harder to put on hold. Rosie Sheehy is engagingly spiky and complex as this ambitious teenager, who’s got an offer to study physics at Cambridge. She falls for both Romeo and his baby. But her parents are furious when this love threatens the academic future they’ve given their all to support...Owen also shows how Julie’s changing priorities drain the life from her: ‘I'm too exhausted to be brilliant,’ she sighs, putting her books aside. “This is closely naturalistic, witty, skilled writing, shot through with subtle tensions and resentments, and given life by Rachel O’Riordan’s full-blooded production. “They inhabit a world that feels generic, rather than universal. They don’t talk about normal teenage stuff, save chippie teas and a brief reference to Stormzy, while Julie's love of physics doesn’t yield any especially illuminating metaphors. Still, the spark between Howells and Sheehy is just strong enough to bring a little fire to this story – and to introduce a welcome note of hope to its muted ending” * * * Arifa Akbar, lead critic for “the Guardian”: “...The star-crossed lovers are dealing with hard-scrabble lives: Julie (Rosie Sheehy) is an aspiring astrophysicist whose working-class parents are desperate for her to get into Cambridge University. Romeo (Callum Scott Howells) is an out-of-work single father, caught between his baby and his alcoholic mother, struggling to buy nappies. “Spun as a romcom cum kitchen sink drama, there is plenty of cuteness and comic banter, along with Gavin and Stacey-style awkward encounters with each other’s parents. Hayley Grindle’s abstract set illuminates the skies that Julie seeks to study as a mobile constellation dangling above, which also references Shakespearean fate written in the stars. “....The play is spotted with adoptive or surrogate mothers, with existential questions subtly asked around the nature of parenting, even if Romeo and Julie’s parents feel rather too thin as characters. Julie’s ruminations on aiming for Cambridge or sacrificing ambition to be with Romeo bring good reflections on educational aspiration as an exit from poverty and powerlessness. There are some keen scenes, such as a fierce speech by Julie’s mother on the value of underpaid care work. These bring wonderful flashes of intensity but are not quite sustained or penetrating enough to capture us completely. “What does is the chemistry between Howells, as the lovable, oafish and eminently good dad, and the always excellent Sheehy who brings great force of spirit to Julie. The few (maybe too few) scenes of distilled romance between them are charged with teen physicality and they soar.” * * * * Extracts cited, with acknowledgments, from the full reviews which can be read at: https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/romeo-and-julie-at-the-national-theatre-review-callum-scott-howells-b1062174.html https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/mar/05/women-beware-the-devil-almeida-review-romeo-and-julie-dorfman-national-theatre-shirley-valentine-sheridan-smith-duke-of-yorks https://britishtheatre.com/review-romeo-and-julie-national-theatre/ https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/romeo-and-julie-review https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/feb/22/romeo-and-julie-review-dorfman-theatre-london “Romeo and Julie” is at the Sherman until 29th April. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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