Tragedy befalls the audience in Tim Carroll's production - three hours of drama so passionless that it almost made you feel like topping yourself. This is a lazy piece of theatre that, were it performed in any other space but the Globe, would be truly dire; the venue has its own strange architectural alchemy that allows the audience to feel as if it has a stake in the proceedings. Romeo and Juliet gets away with it by the skin of its teeth only because of the enduring goodwill of the Globe audience and the odd good performance - notably Melanie Jessop, who is a cracking and sharply defined Lady Capulet.
This year's fashion for a pantomime-style dame in the role of the nurse continues with the casting of Bette Bourne, who gets away with it because he goes easy on the camp. But it is a distracting device, simply a good wheeze that adds nothing in terms of meaning or comment to the play - and, given the lack of good Shakespearean roles for older women, it is hardly democratic. James Garnon's Mercutio may yet be very good, although not so long as he is forced to do the Queen Mab speech with his face covered by a mask. And the costumes are authentically late-16th-century and authentically ugly: can one really accept tragedy from a man wearing a gaudy flowerpot on his head?
The main problem - as so often with this play - is the central casting. Initially, it seemed as if Tom Burke's Romeo might be rather interesting. There is a stillness about this actor that intrigues. But while he does the long dark tunnel of sulky adolescence very well, he is a less-than-ardent lover and vocally colourless. Juliet, meanwhile, would be best bound and gagged. These young and inexperienced actors shouldn't take the blame; the director should.
· Until September 26. Box office: 020-7401 9919.
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