This Romeo & Juliet isn’t afraid to take risks. And they pay off. With an understanding that his audience is already familiar with the world’s most famous lovers and their doomed fate, Kilby-Henson boldly pushes past tradition and dives headfirst into a sensory experience that melds classic text with dreamlike surrealism and Kiwi originality. He doesn’t tear down Shakespeare’s words, he honours them, but he breathes into them new meaning and urgency, all while casting them through a wildly contemporary lens. What results is a feverish exploration of the play’s emotional core, soaked in erotic energy, musical fervour, and aching, tragic beauty.

Split into two distinct halves — Act One: Love and Act Two: Death — the production is anchored by a striking visual and emotional journey. Act One is a luscious, romantic fantasy rendered in blazing shades of pink, red, orange, and peach. There’s a dreamy, Felliniesque energy at play here, with nods to La Dolce Vita, the opulence of Capote’s Black and White Ball, and the whimsical artifice of Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon. It’s theatricality turned up to 11: bold, flamboyant, and stunning to behold.

But as we fall deeper into the romance, the stage undergoes a total metamorphosis. Act Two: Death arrives like a creeping fog, drenching the theatre in an eerie, moss-green haze. The cast, now clothed in shadowy black, wander across a set that feels haunted, like a world unravelling. The tonal shift is palpable, and Kilby-Henson leans into the ghostly with full abandon — none more so than through the mysterious and spectral figure of Death herself, played with entrancing stillness and chilling presence by Amanda Tito. Hovering at the periphery, emerging in key moments, she is a constant reminder of the play’s fatal trajectory, and her presence adds an uncanny, almost horror-esque texture that’s impossible to shake.

Much of the success of the production lies in Kilby-Henson’s inspired partnership with movement director Katrina George. Together, they reimagine Romeo & Juliet not just as a tragedy, but as a living, breathing force of nature. George’s choreography is primal and carnal: bodies twist, thrust, and collide with animalistic abandon. A central movement sequence, set to a hypnotic musical number, transforms the traditional masked ball into an erotic, kaleidoscopic celebration of sensuality and discovery. It’s part nightclub, part ritual, all pulsing with heat and sweat and longing.

At the heart of this gorgeous chaos are the lovers themselves: Jesme Fa’auuga’s Romeo and Phoebe McKellar’s Juliet. Forget what you think you know; these aren’t the stock characters of high school English. Fa’auuga plays Romeo not as a lovesick poet, but as a strutting, charismatic playboy who falls hard and fast, and throws himself into love with unchecked abandon. McKellar’s Juliet is something else entirely — a rebel angel with a punk-rock edge, who burns with adolescent defiance and an aching hunger to feel something real. Together, their chemistry is combustible, their courtship unfolding like a meteor strike. Their romance is more than star-crossed; it’s soaked in sweat, laughter, and aching, bare-skinned desire.

Indeed, this production leans all the way into the eroticism often buried within the text. The love scenes between Romeo and Juliet drip with sensuality, as the stage becomes a bedroom of sighs, limbs, and whispered oaths. Their love is written not just in poetry, but in flesh. It’s unashamed, thrilling, and entirely fitting for the passions at play.

The supporting cast brings their own unique brilliance to Kilby-Henson’s kaleidoscopic vision. Courtney Eggleton is an absolute scene-stealer as the Nurse, oscillating wildly between comedic buffoonery and fierce maternal devotion. She’s a delight to watch, unpredictable, hilarious, and deeply moving in equal measure. Ryan Carter’s Mercutio is all glitter, sass, and swagger,  a dazzling sparkplug of queer rebellion and theatrical defiance. His electric dynamic with Liam Coleman’s quietly smouldering Benvolio (yes, their on-stage kiss will get a reaction from the audience) is one of the production’s most powerful subversions, and it lands like fireworks.

Then there’s Beatriz Romilly, who unleashes an absolute firestorm as Lady Capulet. Equal parts cougar and queen, she prowls the stage with a smirk, drenched in sensuality and raw command. It’s a performance of swagger and smoulder, and Romilly plays every note with delicious intensity. Finally, Miriama McDowell brings soulful depth and gravitas to Whaea Lawrence, reimagined as a wise wahine of the land, and the only voice of reason in a world spiralling into chaos. Her presence is grounding, her performance majestic.

There’s something remarkable about this Romeo & Juliet that goes beyond aesthetics. It’s in the way it taps into the pulse of youth. Of Gen-Z freedom and frustration. Of young bodies desperate to love, to rebel, to escape, to feel. It strips back the centuries and shows us how the play has always been about the same thing — the glorious, uncontrollable mess of being alive and young and burning with love in a world that doesn’t understand you.

Auckland Theatre Company’s Romeo & Juliet is a fever dream. A burning cathedral of love, lust, grief, and rage. It’s a masterpiece of live performance, full of audacity and invention, that proves Shakespeare still has the power to speak to us — loudly, sensually, and with heartbreaking immediacy. You don’t just watch this production. You feel it.

Romeo & Juliet is now playing at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. Run, don’t walk. This is one for the ages.

Image:  Andi Crown

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This isn’t your high school Shakespeare. Think Shakespeare meets Saltburn; all opulence, obsession, and dangerous allure. Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson (The Effect, King Lear) reimagines the greatest love story of all time as a fast-paced, cinematic thriller, set against the wild freedom of the 1960s, a decade dripping with rebellion, liberation, and lethal romantic energy.

Here, love is a loaded gun, and when Romeo and Juliet collide? KABOOM.

Stepping into the iconic roles are Theo Dāvid (Shortland Street) and Phoebe McKellar (One Lane Bridge), two rising stars who bring smouldering intensity and youthful defiance to Shakespeare’s doomed lovers. Kilby-Henson describes their chemistry as “flint and gunpowder,” and the pair light up the stage with an irresistible mix of fragility, fire, and full-blown obsession.

And it’s not just the leads who bring the drama. This Romeo & Juliet boasts a powerhouse supporting cast, including Ryan Carter as the mercurial Mercutio, Jesme Fa’auuga as a deadly Tybalt, and Courtney Eggleton as a scene-stealing Nurse. Miriama McDowell brings soul and gravitas as Friar Lawrence, while Amanda Tito takes on multiple roles, including Death herslef, with haunting intensity.

This production is set to sizzle with modern energy. Composer Robin Kelly is set to deliver a haunting original score that pulses like a heartbeat, while designers Daniel Williams and Daniella Salazar cloak the stage in a Milan-meets-Mod aesthetic, with sleek tailoring, bold prints, high fashion, and smoky glamour. It’s the ‘60s, but make it tragic couture.

And make no mistake, while the look is luxe and the pace is electric, Romeo & Juliet will still deliver all the heartache, horror, and heady passion that made it a classic. Underneath the spectacle lies a story of forbidden love, fractured families, and how youthful idealism is too often swallowed whole by hate.

“This is Shakespeare’s ode to love of all kinds,” says Kilby-Henson. “Romantic love, sexual love, the love between friends and family, love through faith.” And in this production, every form of love is on full display—raw, risky, and sometimes ruinous.

With death lurking in every corner, and a summer heat that could burn the whole city down, Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Romeo & Juliet is set to deliver a theatrical fever dream you won’t soon forget. It’s sexy. It’s stylish. It’s Shakespeare with a knife in its back and roses in its teeth.

Tickets are on sale now at atc.co.nz.

Image: Auckland Theatre Company

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