He may not quite yet be in Shakespeare’s league as a household name, but Matthew Bourne has made the stamp of his creative vision so distinctive it’s almost as easy to spot the hallmarks of his work as it is the bard’s. His reimagining of Romeo & Juliet, set in an undefined institution for young people, contains all the Bourne identifiers: crisp characterisation, impeccable physical storytelling, Lez Brotherston’s design that blurs nostalgia with an edge of something else; in this case menace, in the form of Victorian tiles and white-painted bars.

The movement is shot through with energy, from the early pack formations of the young inmates (dancing Prokofiev’s famous Montagues & Capulets march) to the joyous depictions of innocent young love in Romeo and Juliet’s swirling, airy first duet. Here the central conflict is pitted not between two equal factions (‘both alike in dignity’) but with the inmates of the asylum and its guards, principally Tybalt, who is abusing Juliet behind closed gates.

This skewing of Shakespeare’s power dynamic changes the stakes for the lovers quite considerably: they are no longer defying their tribes but united with the other inmates against a common enemy. Bourne finds ways for this to play out with creativity and beauty, in the tender ritual of the lovers’ marriage, when they are blindfolded and wheeled around in their beds by friends. Or in the ball scene where, instead of tense square-offs between rival gangs, the movement fluctuates between sanctioned, clockwork-awkward partner dances that take place under the guards’ noses and feral embraces that emerge when they’ve turned their backs. 

As the piece reaches its tragic climax however, it begins to feel more like a clever twist on a classic tale than an insightful exploration of the themes it confronts. Still, an outstanding cast delivers a bold and utterly original take on Shakespeare’s play. 

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet is on tour until Saturday 4 November; reviewed at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh.