REVIEW: Romeo and Juliet by Creation Theatre, in partnership with Watford Palace Theatre (Online)

In 2020 Rob Myles curated the complete works of Shakespeare over several months on a weekly basis with actors around the world in their homes (The Show must go Online) and made them available for free on YouTube. It was fascinating to see how their technique evolved and improved using zoom technology over the weeks. Creation Theatre, in partnership with Watford Palace Theatre, have taken this idea a step forward (or perhaps backwards) with their innovative 'choose your own adventure' style adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet directed by Jermyn Street Theatre’s Artistic Associate Natasha Rickman. It proclaims it is “an expansive multi-platform digital production”. In practice, it is a mess and rather like having a nightmare about a drug-fuelled rave with 105 (on this occasion) voyeurs watching.

It is a game of two halves. In the first half, we join the story either as Capulets or Montagues and by the look of it the voyeurs split roughly fifty: fifty as we watch our “House” prepare for the Capulets party where Romeo meets Juliet. Throughout we can see in the zoom windows the other voyeurs, some in masks, as they too try to work out what is going on. 

REVIEW: Grimm Tales for Fragile Times & Broken People (Creation Theatre Online)

Creation Theatre presents a set of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales in true macabre style with a talented cast of five in this hour-long spine-chilling storytime. So as recommended, I sat in pitch black and lit my candle (a half-used Pumpkin Spice one from Halloween, rather apropos), and went down the gruesome rabbit hole.

There were five tales told, all in a round, which took a while to understand and settle into. It helped that there were a few that I was already familiar with. All the storytellers kept up their consistently creepy energy throughout, and there were some interesting and unusual camera angles and physical settings which further added to the unsettling vibe.