Romeo & Juliet review: Icke’s time-bending adaptation reimagines the classic

Posted on 1 Apr 2026

The Bard meets the Butterfly Effect in Robert Icke’s time-bending take on Romeo and Juliet. Ickes long-standing fascination with time sits right at the heart of this production. A digital clock flashes on the concrete walls, reminding us just how little time Romeo (Noah Jupe) and Juliet (Sadie Sink) have together. It also drives the play forwards (and backwards). When the clock is projected onto the concrete walls, scenes are reset, re-worked and repeated, and tiny changes are made (a character trips, someone runs in a different direction, a partygoer holds up Juliet) which allows the audience to see what could have been, and what is. Emphasises just how fragile, and cruel, fate can be. For a 400-year-old text, it feels startlingly alive. The adaptation is fizzing with energy and a sense of improvisation, as though anything could change. And, as key moments are replayed before us, it does. Crucially, this production leans into the youth of its lovers. Often played with sweeping earnestness, here Romeo and Juliet are exactly what they are: teenagers. Awkward, impulsive, and overwhelmed. Their love isn’t polished, it’s clumsy, embarrassing and all-consuming. Their love, or lust, is born out of teenage obsession. They often flop onto the bed mid-confession, so consumed by the embarrassment of it all. They hide their faces, awkwardly stumble through their first kiss. Romeo is no smooth-talking Casanova; he’s goofy and unsure of himself. Juliet meets him with equal parts intensity and cringe. It’s painfully recognisable: that teenage conviction that every encounter with your crush, and every awkward, difficult or painful moment is life or death. And for them, it is. Sadie Sink, known to millions as Max from *Stranger Things*, proves herself utterly at home on stage, which is unsurprising, considering she started her Broadway career at just 10 years old. Here, the Tony nominee gives a captivating, and layered, performance. Her Juliet is funny, raw, completely heartfelt, and deeply human. She’s magnetic. Opposite her, Noah Jupe delivers a Romeo who is sensitive, frustrated, and hopelessly in love. With prior Shakespearean experience under his belt (he played Hamlet in Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-nominated *Hamnet*), he brings both emotional intelligence and comic timing to the role. Together, Sink and Jupe are a perfect (tragic) couple.

Away from the doomed couple, Kasper Hilton-Hille shines as (the equally doomed) Mercutio. Cheeky, in both senses, his performance crackles with anarchic energy. Romeo's boisterous BFF, Mercutio refuses to take anything seriously, not even death itself. His “plague on both your houses” speech is turned completely on its head, delivered with a fresh irreverence that makes it feel brand new. He toys with Tybalt, mocking him as the “king of cats,” playfully miming paws and claws even in moments of supposed surrender. It’s inventive, surprising, and utterly compelling. What’s perhaps most striking is how funny this production is. There’s a lightness with the text, which embraces the absurdity of young love. But it’s not all played for laughs, and the humour, which dominates the first act, only deepens the emotional impact later on. When tragedy strikes, it hits harder, not because it's happening to two earnest and angelic figures (which is often the cast), but because it’s happening to two hapless teenagers who have just happened to fall desperately, obsessively and hopelessly, in love. It’s testament to the production, that even with that ever-present clock ticking away in the background, and a 2 hour 50 minute runtime, it never feels long. In fact you find yourself wishing it would be longer. It’s an experience you wish you could replay, rewind and do again - just like its scenes. “Never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo”, goes the famous closing line, yet Icke’s fresh production has somehow made it even more heartbreaking. By reminding us how small moments shape entire lives, and showing us what could have been, we are even more bereft when faced with the reality we’re given. It’s brilliant, and brutal. [Romeo & Juliet](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/romeo-and-juliet-london-tickets) plays at the [Harold Pinter Theatre](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/venue/harold-pinter-theatre-london) until 20 June 2026.