Blood

Bold colours light up panes of a large Ikea-style storage unit and there’s the hint of skyline, a city, the home of star-crossed lovers. But the steel framework isn’t just a backdrop for the Midlands community at the heart of the play. Props are swiftly stored away in drawers when they’re not needed and a compartment opens to become an upstairs window, alluding to an iconic balcony. There’s a very apt bare necessities feel in Emteaz Hussain’s polished and grounded take on Romeo and Juliet.

Krupa Pattani, as Caneze, and Adam Samuel-Bal, as Sully, bond over a comic Nando’s full of rhythmic asides. The actors’ dynamic is unequivocally profound and their tempo vibrant. They have the heart-warming wit and infectious nature of young love down to a tee. However, young love’s spirit is soon crushed by the ominous and suffocating presence of gang violence, rooted in family ties, in the couple’s Pakistani community. Sully is viciously reminded that he’s to stay away from Caneze.

The gang is unseen throughout but certainly not unfelt, through strong direction by Esther Richardson. The actors transition elegantly between the roles of family members and have cleverly-crafted one-sided conversations, leaving the audience to conjure images of the pressures they’re retorting to. There’s a sinister and striking scene where Pattani simultaneously voices Caneze’s malevolent fiancé whilst using her body to show his despicable abuse. Physicality is used skilfully throughout.

The intense pressure of family and outsiders is also brought to life by Hussain’s purposely poetic text. Staccato repetition highlights the forceful views of Caneze’s family as they strive to keep the young couple apart. “Gotta keep things ticking over,” she reiterates again and again. Sully’s got it right — they want her to believe what they believe.

The energy that the performance poetry invokes begins to fade as the pair face the stark reality of the price they’re willing to pay for each other. There’s an authentic progression from teenage naivety to two people who have been beaten down. It does become a little too kitchen sink and loses the spark of the first half. And with the belief that we know how it’s all going to end, there’s a slight dragging sense of predictability.

But the production, likes it’s characters, comes back fighting and it’s not the conclusion we expect. In Blood, love is resilient. It’s thicker than the pressure of outsiders. This is a spirited production which breaks free from a traditional story and tells it in its own way. It encourages people to do the same.