NOT: Romeo and Juliet, Open Air Theatre, Regents Park

I think the Open Air Theatre is a magical venue for Shakespeare, so this production could have tipped the balance to HOT purely on that fact. However, on its own merits I don't think I can recommend it. The modernised fifties setting added nothing to the story, the rhythm and cadences of the language were often lost (so that I lost whole chunks of meaning as the lines were delivered thump-thump-thump-thump), and I found Juliet's agitated forearm shaking and Romeo's constant finger-pointing distracting and unnecessarily overwrought. Not convincing and almost dull.