Grand Opera House, Belfast

I would have better enjoyed Robert North's contemporary Romeo and Juliet in Belfast's Grand Opera House on Tuesday had I not seen the splendid Kenneth MacMillan and John Cranko versions. While sometimes North slavishly follows Shakespeare's lines, the dramatic flow is repeatedly destroyed by unnecessary padding. These included a Prologue showing the eponymous lovers in childhood, a masque of Diana in Act 1, a street theatre scene ridiculing marriage in Act 2 and a nightmare sequence for Juliet after taking the potion in Act 3. And though Diana is identified by her bow and her quarry by stag's horns, both added to the many characters needing identification, so I was not surprised to overhear people finding the plot hard to follow.

In favour of the production was Jesus Pastor's Romeo, stunning technically, dramatically and emotionally, while Mia Johansson as Juliet managed youthful innocence, ecstasy in love and distraction at being forced into bigamy. There is much humour, centred mainly on Marco Tambone's excellent Mercutio, though the Queen Mab speech is not made clear by the choreographer, and the fights are well staged. There are also many attractive duets, trios and group dances, all beautifully performed by soloists and corps alike.

Beautiful, too, was Prokofiev's score, finely played by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, conducted by Richard Honner and the ingenious and ever-changing settings by Andrew Storer.

Runs until Saturday March 3rd at 7.45 p.m., with matinees on Thursday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 2.30 p.m.

Michele Di Molfetta as Tybalt and Ivan Dinev as Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet