The production of Romeo & Juliet currently playing on London’s West End is something that demands unique attention. Following his lauded Olivier Award-winning production of Sunset Boulevard last year, seasoned director Jamie Lloyd could have had his pick of any scripts and any actors with which to stage his next show. His now infamous choice to restage Romeo & Juliet with Spider-Man’s Tom Holland not only alerted theatre circles, but also thrust the production into the mainstream spotlight in ways unfamiliar to most shows that hit the West End.

Both Lloyd and Holland have something to prove with this production, Lloyd: that he can retain the critical acclaim enjoyed by Sunset Boulevard, and Holland: that he can finally prove himself as a serious actor outside of franchise work. In an almost Shakespearean fashion, audiences at the Duke of York’s Theatre prepare to indulge themselves on the greatest ambitions of two of Britain's most significant creatives. Now all that’s left to for them to do is to stick the landing.

The production itself is highly stylized, filled with aggressive sound design and elements of cinetheatre, a subgenre that Lloyd helped to establish. In an almost concert-like fashion, the play’s characters are trailed by cameramen, whose footage is projected onto onstage screens in real time.  This allows for a number of engaging and creative theatrical experiments, including one scene where Romeo’s exile is represented by footage of Holland delivering lines on top of the theatre’s roof. Audiences are then invited to follow as he returns to Juliet, walking in lockstep behind him as he races through the foyer and back onto the stage.Other instances of projection include the calendar-like display of time’s passage, in that the days of the week are boldly displayed behind characters as the play unfolds, which helps the audience confront the rapid nature of the source material and heightens its ultimate tragedy.  There are just some examples of Lloyd’s unique employment of the incorporation of cinema into theatre, but its objective creativity can be called into question when faced with the notion that many of the same tricks were used on a larger and more impressive scale in Sunset Boulevard.

Outside of this, the production’s stagecraft is relatively sparse, mostly defined by its scaffolding and unconventional use of microphone stands. There were next to no props or set pieces which actors could physically interact with onstage, which helped Lloyd achieve the transformative, timeless effect he is very obviously hoping to convey. The production’s costuming is unquestionably modern, especially notable are Holland’s incredibly baggy jeans, which enable a very engaging silhouette in the dimmer moments of the play. Holland’s clothing also lends to the specific attention paid to moments in the script that reference Romeo’s attractiveness, especially during one shameless interaction with Juliet’s Nurse in which she admires Holland’s exposed arms while he wears a white singlet. This production is aware of public attitudes towards its star, and you can’t help but admire the on-the-nose moments of adornment that they squeeze out of Shakespeare’s words.

That being said, Holland’s performance is not limited to his onstage physicality. The actor definitively exhibits a range largely unseen in his commercial film outings. He brings something fresh and exciting to the role of Romeo, rejecting his understood brooding and egotistical nature and instead performing him initially as a nervous, awkward young teenager. As the content of the play darkens, however, Holland does grow to fill a more gravelly, matured version of his interpretation, similar to where most versions of the characters begin. Romeo’s moments of intense emotion, which often feature a double-whammy of screaming and crying, don’t feel especially earned or honest when performed by Holland, which is dissapointing against what is otherwise a well-crafted interpretation. Despite this, Holland offers up what is perhaps this production’s best performance, which speaks to the unfortunate weakness of some of his onstage peers.

This collective weakness, however, does not apply to Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet, a newcomer actress who rose to the near impossible task of performing opposite an actor in an intended star-making role. For Lloyd and Holland, this production solely worked as a test for their existing careers, but, in Amewudah-Rivers’ West End debut, the actress was forced to not only put up a commendable performance, but also manage the barrage of racial harassment that was barrelled at her following the announcement of her casting. She defiantly draws attention from Holland throughout the play, delivering an immensely capable performance which prescribed a newfound autonomy to Juliet. The warmth and friendliness of her expression is not only an interesting interpretation of her character’s naivete, but a welcome escape from the bleakness of the play at large. Amewudah-Rivers should also be applauded for her excellent comedic timing, as she litters the production with well-earned and sophisticated moments of levity in spite of her situation. A truly capable actress, Amewudah-Rivers boldly overcomes the hate levied against her, and is sure to enjoy ongoing success in theatre and beyond.

However, Romeo & Juliet’s other performances exhibit a variety of tonal inconsistencies, which prevented anyone from its ensemble cast from standing out in a meaningful respect. Namely, Freema Agyeman, who took on the role of Juliet’s Nurse, fell victim to Lloyd’s half-baked modernization of the playscript, her unapologetically modern line deliveries were jarring against the rest of the production, especially when compared with the relative timelessness exhibited by Holland and Amewudah-Rivers.

This production of Romeo & Juliet certainly has something to prove, and it’s just daring enough to justify its glaring presence in the modern literary and theatrical zeitgeist. It’s perhaps not the home run that Lloyd anticipated, but the play still works as an impressive addition to the resumés of both its director and its actors. For audiences, we get to escape the high-stakes nature of this play’s backstage happenings, and find ourselves able to simply enjoy what is ultimately a refreshing take on exhausted material.