Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare’s timeless love-tragedy is given a ska-tinged ’80s makeover in the National Youth Theatre’s West End season at the Ambassadors.

It’s a refreshingly bravura move from a youth company which has been the first port of acting call for much of the UK’s most loved talent – Matt Smith, Luke Treadaway, Hugh Bonneville and Helen Mirren, to name a few.

Sadly, Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation, although edited to merge nicely with the new conceit, is too rushed and too bitty to feel satisfying. It’s also rammed into two hours with no interval and as the show nears the end it feels distinctly long.

However there are some sparky performances, especially from Abigail Rose’s gobby, Essex-esque nurse and Sope Dirisu’s weed-smoking Jamaican friar. James Button’s colourful, neon designs are a lot of fun, as is the regular music intervals where the cast play live songs such as The Specials’ ‘Too Much Too Young’.

By Daisy Bowie-Sell