Review: Romeo & Juliet: Out of Pocket, Arches Lane Theatre

Romeo and Juliet: the timeless tale of star-crossed lovers that remains, arguably, Shakespeare’s most famous play. It’s familiar, comfortable, safe. Which begs the question: what pressure does that put on a modern production? Should an artist innovate, modernise, re-contextualise? Or, after so many stagings, have audiences grown complacent, happy to accept any R&J production with a sigh and an “it is what it is”? These were my thoughts as I stepped into Arches Lane Theatre for Romeo & Juliet: Out of Pocket – and I’m happy to report it made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. 

Written by Emiliano Dionisi and directed by Alonso Iñiguez, the show follows two university professors: a fiery Mexican Shakespeare lover (Eduardo Zucchi) and a sharp-tongued British scholar (Felicity Ison). Tasked with delivering a lecture on Romeo and Juliet, their talk unravels into a bilingual, farcical re-enactment. Over 70 minutes, they race through key scenes, pausing for witty asides, cultural clashes, and scholarly squabbles, and, in playing the doomed lovers, begin to fall for each other.

The show is fast-paced and consistently funny, packed with gags that keep the audience giggling from start to finish. It is full of over-the-top character work: a combative cockney Benvolio, a flamboyant flirt of a nurse, and a wonderfully absurd Friar who, arriving a minute too late only to find the lovers dead, shrugs: “I should’ve taken an Uber”. Punchy one-liners and physical comedy make the jokes land, whether it’s telling Tybalt, the prince of cats, to “go back to [his] litter box, cat man”, having Juliet swig poison from a toilet-brush holder, or slipping in cheeky Spanish interjections from Zucchi. The variety in their characterisations keeps laughs coming. 

It’s an approachable, humorous take on Shakespeare: think No Fear Shakespeare, but with gags woven in. Still, it could use more grounding. By playing even the professors as over-the-top from the outset, the ‘play within a play’ loses some impact; the heightened style blurs things together, leaving little contrast. Were the professors to start more truthfully before being swept up in their farcical retelling, the shift into chaos would feel sharper, the comedy stronger, and the pacing more dynamic. As it stands, the energy remains at the same high pitch from start to finish, giving the performances nowhere to build towards. This is most noticeable in Ison’s more grounded Juliet; her monologues land beautifully and truthfully, in contrast to the rest of the show, making you wish for more such moments. Although this isn’t meant to be a ‘faithful’ Shakespeare production, pockets of sincerity would allow the absurdity to hit harder. The romance between the professors, meanwhile, feels unearned; without a clear journey from sparring scholars to star-crossed lovers, their ending together rings false. 

Props, set, and costume (Aldo Vázquez Yela) play a big role in the comedy’s success. With just a chalkboard and a cart of cleaning supplies, they conjure a colourful, ridiculous Verona. Jodie Underwood’s minimal lighting subtly shifts us from the classroom to the world of Romeo and Juliet, expanding and contracting the space as needed. One highlight is Tybalt’s murder, staged in slow motion under strobe lights – a sequence that lands as one of the funniest in the show. Oddly, it’s Benvolio who fights Tybalt, with Mercutio never even mentioned. While streamlining the cast makes sense for a two-person show, replacing such a pivotal character is an unusual choice. Romeo & Juliet: Out of Pocket is an enjoyable piece of cross-cultural theatre. It will make you laugh, send you home smiling, and remind you how much fun Shakespeare can be when it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Written by Emiliano Dionisi
Directed by Alonso Iñiguez
Designed by Aldo Vázquez Yela
Lighting by Jodie Underwood

Romeo & Juliet: Out of Pocket is playing at the Arches Lane Theatre until Saturday 16 August

Before transferring to the Edinburgh Fringe at The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall
from Tuesday 19 until Saturday 23 August