Theatre reviews: & Juliet | Miracle On Deanston Drive

Rushing along on a tide of glittery showbiz anthems, & Juliet is a glorious rebellion against all the familiar assumptions surrounding one of the great icons of western culture, writes Joyce McMillan

Gerardine Sacdalan as Juliet with the cast of & Juliet | Matt Crockett

& Juliet, Playhouse, Edinburgh ★★★★

Miracle On Deanston Drive, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

At the end of the musical & Juliet, Juliet Capulet and Anne Hathaway pirouette a sparkly 60s-style juke box into place, centre stage, before dancing off together, arm in arm. It’s a gesture that perfectly captures the character of the show, a true “juke box musical” created in 2019 around the songs of Swedish songwriter Max Martin, many of them already well-established pop classics.

& Juliet is a tribute show with a difference, though; because instead of emerging as a contemporary tale set in the period of the music, David West Read’s book plunges straight into the high-risk business of offering a 21st century feminist challenge to the familiar story of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet.

So as the show starts, Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway, who has come to London to see the show, stage a pitched battle over whether Juliet should die or not, after waking up in the Capulet tomb to find Romeo already dead. Right from the outset, he tone is loud, feisty and rebellious, as Juliet stays alive, belts out Martin’s Baby One More Time, and resolves to move her life on, helped by her fabulous nurse Angelique, her non-binary best friend May, and her new other best friend, who turns out to be Anne Hathaway in disguise.

Shakespeare, though, remains attached to his original plot; and as Juliet and her pals flee Verona to start a new life in Paris, they find that the past keeps catching up with them, not least in the form of Romeo, whom Shakespeare brings back from the dead. Sometimes, the whole & Juliet story just becomes as shade too ridiculous for comfort, as 16th and 21st centuries collide; and there’s no denying that the small fragments of Shakespeare’s poetry that survive this cheerful meltdown shine like jewels in West Read’s otherwise raucous script.

Yet Geraldine Sacdalan is a terrific, fearless Juliet, Sandra Marvin a mighty Angelique, Lara Denning the audience’s hero as Anne, Jordan Broatch poignantly gorgeous as May. And with the story rushing along on a tide of big, glittery showbiz anthems spectacularly staged by a terrific 20-strong ensemble - and the audience roaring the characters on in their rebellion against all the familiar assumptions around one of the great icons of western culture - it seems that in this show, at least, we can’t stop the feeling that the world is on a one-way trip to more equality, more self-fulfilment, and more freedom, to live and love as we choose.

Kal Sabir in Miracle on Deanston Drive | Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

If & Juliet is all upbeat aspiration, this week’s Play, Pie And Pint drama Miracle On Deanston Drive is based on a true story, and - despite its title - set firmly in the real world.

In this powerful 50 minute monologue by Katharine Williams, performed with deep feeling and real physical grace by Kal Sabir, our hero Jaz is a lonely Glasgow taxi driver, bewildered by the bleak emptiness of his life, who one night before Christmas is dropping off a fare in Shawlands when he hears a woman clutching a sick baby and a sleepy little two-year-old boy desperately hailing his taxi. The baby is turning blue; and Jay drives for its very life, through the night towards the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

There’s no neat conclusion to Jaz’s story, despite elements of a joyful happy ending; just perhaps a sense of reconnection, and an end to a dark period in his life.

Williams’s script, though, emerges as a beautifully written and paced solo drama, full of vivid imagery, deep feeling, and real love for the texture of city life in Glasgow; and the roar of applause that greeted the play at Oran Mor speaks volumes both for Williams’s high promise as a writer, and for the power of Kal Sabir’s moving performance, flawlessly directed by Roxana Cole.

& Juliet is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh until 16 November, and at His Majesty’s, Aberdeen, 4-8 February 2025. Miracle On Deanston Drive is at Oran Mor, Glasgow, until 16 November.