'Romeo & Juliet' review — Sadie Sink is luminous in Robert Icke's time-bending production

Read our review of Romeo & Juliet, starring Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe, now in performances at the Harold Pinter Theatre through 20 June.

Summary

• Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink are playing star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare's tragic play
• Robert Icke (Oedipus) directs
• Sink is best known for starring in the Netflix megahit Stranger Things while Jupe recently starred in Hamnet
• They both make their West End debuts

The word “hour” appears more frequently in Romeo & Juliet than any of Shakespeare’s other plays. This interest in time — and how a momentary decision can irrevocably alter the future — is clearly a thought that stuck with director Robert Icke when he decided to stage this tragic love story, casting Stranger Things star Sadie Sink and Hamnet’s Noah Jupe as the doomed leads.

Icke played with the pressures of time in his election-set, modern-day Oedipus in 2024 to startling effect, and he aims to do the same here: once again, large, ticking clocks are used throughout to chart the course of five relentless days. Giant panels glide effortlessly across Hildegard Bechtler’s stripped-back set to make literal the “sliding doors moments” in the play, and Icke goes as far as to rewind time on multiple occasions. He restarts scenes to show different outcomes, asking not only what would have happened if Romeo had received the Friar’s letter in Mantua or Juliet had woken up earlier, but what if they had never met at all?

Conceptually his vision is fascinating, but the result is heavy-handed in places — and the sense of two great, warring families is lost somewhere in this interesting mix. Bright lights flood the stage, burning retinas, each time the clock goes back, followed by protracted black outs, which causes the dramatic momentum to take a hit. The Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” also features at one point, seemingly to drive home the message that (in the world of the play), yes, it is Monday. Yet, Icke also plays with wonderful moments of stillness, tearing up the playbook in a moving denouement that imagines a different, happier future for Shakespeare’s star-crossed teenagers.

The production, however, belongs to Sink. In an interview with Vogue, Icke said the production didn’t begin with a passion to stage Romeo & Juliet, but with a desire to work with the Stranger Things star, and this shows. She is luminous as Juliet, capturing the headiness of first love, as well as its ability to make you impulsive and awkward. Sink finds the humour in the balcony scene, navigating the new relationship with fluttering, hesitant speech and interrupting Romeo as he makes grand proclamations. She also knows how to plumb the depths of despair, appearing half mad as the Friar’s potion slips down her throat. It is a reading of Juliet that feels modern and shows traces of her Tony-nominated turn in John Proctor Is the Villain — another well-judged performance revealing the female teenage experience.

Jupe ably supports Sink in his professional theatre debut. His Romeo is charming, boyish, sometimes impassioned, and he particularly shines when he draws the audience into the performance while spying on Juliet in the balcony scene. When Juliet turns to the Nurse for comfort and, in parallel, Romeo does the same with the Friar, each embracing their trusted adult support figures, the image is a stark reminder that they are just children, caught up in teenage passions that will destroy them.

Clare Perkins is a stoic, often funny, cockney Nurse, and Kasper Hilton-Hille steals almost every scene he is in as a naughty, provocative Mercutio, goading Tybalt with cat noises and shaking his bottom suggestively. There is good work too from supporting actors such as Jamie Ankrah (as Peter) and Lewis Shepherd (Paris), the latter looking like he has walked straight out of a Zara spring/summer collection in Bechtler’s modern-dress costume designs.

Star-casting has become a contentious subject in the West End in recent years; after all, only two years ago Tom Holland created a frenzy when he was cast in this very same Shakespeare play. But with Sink, Icke has struck gold.

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Photo credit: Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe in Romeo & Juliet. (Photos by Manuel Harlan)