Andrew Palmer, Group Editor, on how The Duke's Theatre Company concluded this year's festival at Ripon Racecourse with a Romeo and Juliet that showcased wit, precision, and considerable heart – a fitting finale! Roll on next year.


There is something gloriously levelling about outdoor theatre, and Ripon Racecourse on Friday evening proved the point twice over — once on stage and once in the deckchairs. My companions, having secured what I can only describe as the wrong set of chairs, spent the evening some eighteen inches beneath me, sinking gently into the Yorkshire turf like a pair of minor characters written out of the text entirely. I sat elevated, imperiously, as if awarded a box at the Globe by some quirk of casting I certainly hadn't earned. Verona never had a class system quite so literal, but the view — theirs and mine — arrived at the same fun regardless, and that, in the end, is the whole point of a summer evening under an open sky. Around us, other picnics rose to the occasion in a way mine rather modestly did not — hampers that wouldn't have looked out of place at the Capulet banquet, while I made do with a wedge of cheese and quiet dignity.

And what an evening it was to close a fantastic festival. As the sun's fading beams shifted the light across the stage, Ripon Racecourse proved itself the perfect setting for one of the most polished pieces of outdoor theatre I have seen. This is a festival that goes from strength to strength, and if this closing performance is any indication, its success can only continue to build.

The Duke's Theatre Company arrived with just six actors carrying the full weight of Shakespeare's best-known tragedy and carried it superbly — vibrant, humorous, eloquent, and drilled to a precision that never once looked effortless. Director Joseph Pitcher deserves real credit for shaping a production that moved at pace without ever losing its accessibility; the performance was brisk, unrelenting, and thoroughly gripping, particularly through a second half that pulled the audience inexorably toward its tragic close. Diego Pitarch's set and costume design matched that ambition throughout, dressing the production with real flair and imagination.

Alfie Johnson made an impulsive, energetic Romeo, while Molly Marr Johnson's Juliet was assured and quietly compelling, delivering some of the play's finest lines with genuine chemistry between the two star-crossed leads – teenage love rendered with real conviction. But it was Joe Carrick, doubling as Lady Capulet and Mercutio, who rather stole the evening: a performance of camp finesse that flirted with pantomime without ever quite becoming it, saucy in both guises and all the better for it. Shakespeare, after all, has never much minded a spot of gender-swapping, and this production wore it well.

Joshua Murara's Friar balanced cunning and bumbling with real skill, Emily Juler doubled as Nurse and Prince to excellent effect, and Sam Claridge, tackling both Paris and Tybalt, navigated the emotional demands of each with real assurance. The doubling throughout was so cleanly differentiated that each actor's return to the stage in a new guise felt immediate and entirely legible — no small achievement across six performers and considerably more characters.

The humour scattered throughout the script found an appreciative audience, and rather than undercutting the tragedy, it sharpened it — my companions included, whatever their views from down among the tussocks. The sword fights were tight, the choreography sharp, and Romeo's death, when it came, was handled with real conviction and no small measure of style. Rob Millett's score seamlessly wove through the entire evening, dramatically enhancing the emotional current of the piece without ever being intrusive. At just under two hours with an interval, it was the perfect accompaniment to a warm summer's night.

This was theatre-making of real craft — crisply delivered, never a dull moment across its length — and a genuinely stunning way to close out the Ripon Theatre Festival 2026. The Duke's Theatre Company receives no government funding, which makes an evening of this quality all the more remarkable and all the more worth your support. If they return to these parts, go. Bring a decent chair. And here's to next year.



For more information on Ripon Theatre Festival click here

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