Mats Ek’s Juliet & Romeo, Royal Swedish Ballet

An exciting contemporary take on the heartbreak and passion of the most famous of all lovers comes to Sadler’s Wells by controversial choreographer Mats Ek: Juliet and Romeo.

This is Ek’s first full-length piece in 17 years – and UK premiere - and he presents it as an urban tragedy. 

Ek places his young sweethearts in a threateningly modern design by Magdalena Aberg. Via his contemporary-infused style, the pair are more childish in their innocence than classical productions have allowed them to be, and an urban militia-controlled environment looms over the lovers’ nimble young steps. 

Grey, Segway-riding figures dart about the stage, but there’s an injection of Renaissance in the robe-like, colourful costumes. Throw in a wonderfully tattooed and tutu-ed Mercutio and the story avoids time period completely. 

His style can divide opinion, yet Ek’s many aficionados are from every corner and style of the dance spectrum. If the Bolshoi dance to the sky, this choreography lunges low, with flexed feet, spinning and lifting around the torso and filling the middle space with movement. It’s a style that completely refreshes the heartbreak and passion of the star-crossed lovers.

Prokoviev’s score has become one of ballet’s best known and most recognisable - it is perhaps because of this that Ek has dispensed with it, and made the interesting choice of Tchaikovsky, bypassing his ballet scores for an arrangement from the symphonic works, put together by Anders Höstedt.  

If we mentioned that Ek was set for stardom from birth (he’s the son of famous choreographer Birgit Cullberg and actor Anders Ek), you might come to this work with flawed expectations of overconfidence. In fact, having hopped between theatre and dance in his career, Ek is unusually involved in the psychology of the characters. High passion is unavoidable in Juliet and Romeo, but this work is more focused on Juliet, and the brutal isolation of being young and in love and alone.

More than a modernisation, Ek’s idiosyncratic style is enough to bring a whole new epic out of the classic tragedy.