For all its romanticism, director Jason Byrne will not let us forget that this play involves three murders and two suicides. Amid the youthful energy, heat and light of this production, a sense of shadow is never far away.
Soaking up cinematic imagery from Coppola, Tarantino and film noir, Byrne and designers Jon Bausor and Paul Keogan create a "fair Verona" that is somewhere between Sicily and contemporary Dublin. Crumbling public buildings covered in scaffolding set the mood. The machismo of the Montague and Capulet lads is played out in Dublin accents in a city distracted by newly acquired affluence, while the Apothecary is a drug-dealer in a hoodie. Lady Capulet (Ali White) embodies the sense of bored detachment - overdressed, cocktail in hand, she is too consumed by resentment of her husband to notice what is happening to her daughter.
Vivid images fill the stage: the lovers' midnight tryst on the balcony is composed and lit like a Renaissance painting, and the feast at the Capulets' house bursts into life in a mad blend of jive and 1980s disco, switching into slow motion at the moment when Romeo first sets eyes on Juliet. From the skittish youth who was in love with the idea of love, Aaron Monaghan is transformed into a pained young man who realises that he is "fortune's fool". He is matched by a moving performance from Gemma Reeves, full of impetuous ardour. The sombre tone is sustained impressively: the final reconciliation between the rival families does not absolve them of their careless neglect of these young lives.
· Until March 22. Box office: 00 3531 8787222.
