A Night at the Kabuki
Sadler’s Wells
 

A FANTASTICAL reworking of Romeo and Juliet set amongst ancient warring Japanese clans accompanied by strains of Queen’s A Night at the Opera is the self confessed epic mash up created by writer and director Hideki Noda.

The two protagonists are recreated 30 years on, desperate to recapture the past, fill in the missing pieces and alter their tragic fate, yet their frequently comic intrusions into the story of their brief love affair inevitably change nothing.

The visual spectacle with spinning beds, stunning costumes, dramatic tableaux and vast floating sheets on a stage of spinning doors set below white battlements and a cast of 26 is truly mesmerising but the overall effect before the interval where the original tale of the star-crossed lovers is rehashed is of a production on steroids. Rarely does the volume dip, movement cease or the rapid Japanese delivery ease up.

After the break, it is as if Salvador Dali or the Marx Brothers have taken over the direction with Siberian gulags, Sound of Music references, exploding gluttonous diners, balloon suspended reincarnations and armed nuns all cropping up in a bizarre yet visually striking attempt to get back to the start and explain what Romeo and Juliet’s love means beyond the monumentalising of their doomed relationship.

Johnson’s description of Donne’s poetry as heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together is applicable for much of this production where Shakespeare’s verse butts up against modern jargon and the ancient rival families represent the extremes of puritanism and revelry and their ongoing war is fought with guns used like samurai swords and an organised social media campaign.

Queen’s music sometimes adds emphasis and at times works brilliantly with the stylised ensemble movements but frequently the brief instrumental snippets are distractingly throttled before they intrude on the next manic sequence and the rationale for harnessing the production to a single album becomes ever more perplexing.

This unique, three-hour spectacle full of disparate ideas, unrelenting energy and sound can feel like an assault on the senses but is definitely worth catching if it ever returns to these shores after its very brief run at Sadler’s Wells.

Runs until September 24 2022 as part of a world tour. Box office: 020 7863 8000, tickets@sadlerswells.com