Given how swiftly styles of choreography and stage design can change, this revival of Ballet North’s 1992 production of “Romeo and Juliet (originally directed and devised by the late, great Christopher Gable) might have been perceived as a trip down memory lane. This couldn’t have been further from the truth, as its stunning, stylised neo-Renaissance design and remarkable capacity to match movement to Prokofiev’s viscerally memorable music, still as fresh as ever, continues to dazzle and absorb. That latter quality is important, as this work utilises the formal language of ballet to offer a genuine interpretation of Shakespeare’s plot, full of canny characterisation expressed through the wordless language of its medium. Rather than a chorus of nymphs in white tutus, ballet here means a gaggle of fractious youths locked in pointless rivalry that can only end in violence, a portly nurse (well, the costume was portly, rather than Helen Bogatch, who played the role) whose comic personality was shot through with warmth and compassion, and a pair of young lovers whose movement embodied all the tremulous tension and swooning passion of first love. If one particular characterisation shone out it was Harriet Marden as Lady Capulet, all frigid hauteur until the death of Tybalt transformed this into tumultuous, clamorous grief. As well as her dazzling technical skill of movement, there was a real insight here into some complex relationships (not to mention the dancer’s capacity to move with fluid grace and dignity while wearing a long, sweeping gown complete with train.) Sheer elegance and control.

Gail-Nina Anderson