The Royal New Zealand Ballet have been killing it with the ballet adaptations of Shakespeare plays lately. Their exquisite, ethereal 2015 adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream was so lauded it returned to Wellington for a second season last year. I loved this enchanting production so much I saw it twice, and the excitement continued when I found out our national ballet institution was adapting Romeo and Juliet for the stage in 2017.
RNZB will have audiences swooning once more with the world premiere of their adaptation of that old favourite love story you probably studied in NCEA Level 1 English. This version has been created by former RNZB artistic director Francesco Ventriglia, who has stayed on as a guest choreographer at the company.
The star-crossed lovers will be plié and pirouette in superb costumes — you'll wish you'd splurged on the premium seats to see all that drape and texture up close. The tragedy plays out across splendid sets of Renaissance Verona designed by Academy Award-winning designer James Acheson.
It would be a tragedy to miss this lovely production. Its Wellington season runs from 16-20 August, and it's touring Aotearoa after that.