Having seen 'All Roads Lead To Rome' I was left decidedly confused. Assured of all of the obvious, and stunning, overlaps between the themes of these two plays that a spliced effort of around an hour could just about work. At the end, it seems that the only obviously parallel was only the tragic death of both couples, a testament to Shakespeare's brilliance in character portrayal. Romeo and Marc Antony are not happy bedfellows (or though some of the lingering homoeroticism between Alex Bowles and his messenger might make you think otherwise). The flawed Romeo might obviously be compared more easily to the equally flawed Hamlet as a tragic 'hero' - a comparison that would be far more difficult to splice and stage.
I had never really understood the term 'binary' until I saw the emotional range of Caesar, as portrayed by Bowles. Matt Maltby (Romeo, Eros, Caesar), however, shone as he grappled with each character. That said is reaction to Juliet's death felt a little like a Dr.Who-style regeneration.
There are some nice touches by Director Will Maynard (my favourite being Romeo's deliberate doing up of trousers after an offstage sex scene). There is also plenty of awkward shirtlessness for the audience to get their teeth into.
All in all, this project was far too ambitious, and somewhat misguided. Some actors lacked the range to perform one character, let alone three, whilst others performed competently.
'Hell is to love no more' stated the programme. Whilst, performance of All Roads at the BT certainly isn't hell, it might well be purgatory.
I had never really understood the term 'binary' until I saw the emotional range of Caesar, as portrayed by Bowles. Matt Maltby (Romeo, Eros, Caesar), however, shone as he grappled with each character. That said is reaction to Juliet's death felt a little like a Dr.Who-style regeneration.
There are some nice touches by Director Will Maynard (my favourite being Romeo's deliberate doing up of trousers after an offstage sex scene). There is also plenty of awkward shirtlessness for the audience to get their teeth into.
All in all, this project was far too ambitious, and somewhat misguided. Some actors lacked the range to perform one character, let alone three, whilst others performed competently.
'Hell is to love no more' stated the programme. Whilst, performance of All Roads at the BT certainly isn't hell, it might well be purgatory.