THE flagship event of this year’s Salisbury International Arts Festival is a challenging new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, set in and around the brutalist 50-year-old Playhouse and the adjoining car park in the timeless hinterland of tribal feuds and retributions – and it is an astonishing achievement.

This really IS what immersive theatre should be about. It involves a “community company” of 56, a “young company” of 73, 40 from the Creative Academy and pre-show teams, a creative team of 14, a production team of 46 (individuals and companies) – and a professional cast of ten. That is 239 people actively involved in bringing the 2026 festival highlight to an audience of up to 250 each performance, every member listening through headsets.

With all this movement and technical wizardry, it might be that Gareth Machin’s newly-washed production of a very familiar play could get a bit lost, but not so. Shakespeare’s skill as a playwright for all times has seldom been more clearly proved. Gangs of overheated, bored teenagers hang out in an underground car park, and when one group is “invaded” by a rival gang, the tension ramps up. Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech, taken so slowly and with witty sound effects by Will Jennings, brings each allusion to vivid life. Shaniya Hira’s wired and wayward Tybalt oozes danger. Benjamin Lafayette’s Benvolio tries to calm a situation that has not only the gang members but the audience in a state of anxiety … nothing new here.

Will Fletcher’s Romeo, more energetic and powerful than some more poetic actors in the role, easily convinces of his quick-change infatuations and of his powerful attraction to Juliet. The use of the theatre auditorium for the Capulet ball, with performers on stage and also in the seating area and the audience in between, was a brainwave, and thanks to the inspired design by Zoe Squire, added to the participation and the wonder of the piece.

Grace Wylde is a modern Juliet, at war with her parents (the elegant Emilia Williams and the charismatic Mark Springer), and knocked off her feet by her love for Romeo. Patrick Fusco’s prim soldier Paris doesn’t get a look in.

Rebecca Cooper schizophrenically encapsulates the roles of the haughty Prince of Verona, arriving at the car park in a limo, and the garrulous and changeable nurse, and Alistair Cope is an interesting Friary Laurence, a rickshaw salesman of wisdom and absolutions.

The momentum of the story builds as the audience moves between the scenes, from the legendary balcony to a corner of Mantua, the crisp corridors of the Capulet mansion to the horror of the lonely tomb – it is brilliantly done.

I could go on about the music by Alex Heane, lighting by Sara Bath, Mike Beer’s soundsacpe, Hatti Dawson’s choreography and all the other elements that have gone to make this production so compelling – including the moving use of Fear No More the Heat of the Sun as a funeral dirge from the entire team.

There are daily performances (some twice a day) until 7th June. Get a ticket if you can.

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