Last year, the Queen's Theatre produced its first Shakespeare play for 15 years - a sprightly Midsummer Night's Dream. If director Bob Carlton doesn't have quite such a success with Romeo and Juliet, it is simply because it's a tougher play to do well. I've seen the story of Juliet and Romeo test the resolve of audiences more than perhaps any other Shakespeare play.
Carlton's production is perfectly enjoyable even if it fails to give an entirely coherent reading of the play. But it boasts a terrific Romeo, a pale and interesting Ifan Meredith, who not only speaks the verse as if he converses in iambic pentameter every day but actually shows Romeo's development from callow youth to tragic figure.
There are many fine things in Carlton's production, but the inspiration and the mistaken come in an indiscriminate mix. The design - 1930s Italy at the height of Mussolini's regime - makes for a production that is very easy on the eye. But Carlton doesn't explore the political and social dimension this lends to the story; the setting merely giftwraps the play in fascist chic. And the casting of a man as the Nurse is downright silly, introducing an unnecessary pantomime element, even although the actor concerned - Matt Devitt - is rather good. Emily Gardner and Richard Dax are pleasing as the Capulets but it makes no sense that they are played as a nouveau riche couple who have made a bob or two down Romford market.
There is an unevenness that suggests another week of rehearsal might have made all the difference. Every now and again the production shows its quality: the freshness of Romeo and Juliet's first meeting, the really thrilling fights, Romeo so furious that he tries to strangle Tybalt long after he has slashed the man to death and Juliet's nightmare as she takes the sleeping potion.
· Until April 3. Box office: 01708 443333.
