Romeo and Juliet
The Pantaloons
Royal Botanic Garden, dates vary, 14:30 (2hrs), pay what you like.
****
Gawd love the Pantaloons for leaving the fate of their production in the beautiful Botanic Gardens in the hands of Edinburgh’s notoriously fickle weather conditions. Fortunately today the clouds managed to keep it together and, hopefully, so did the audience at this pant wetting spectacle.

The mix of traditional Shakespeare text interspersed with audience participation and knock about fun really shouldn’t have worked but it did leaving an oddly moving ending.

The moments of high drama in the play sometimes were lost in the outdoor space and some of the gags were a little fruity for a family orientated audience (though if you don’t mind your kids seeing R & J with all its murder, suicide and sex, you shouldn’t really mind a few references to losing one’s cherry and the like).

On the whole, The Pantaloons offer a very good afternoon of fun for anyone brave enough to take on the elements.

by Jane Buffham