Intense visual feast at Warwick Arts Centre is totally engrossing

STAR-crossed lovers and a friar feature - but Tis Pity She’s A Whore is no Romeo and Juliet. It is darker and more menacing because the lovers Giovanni and Annabella are brother and sister and the play deals with incest, deceit and betrayal.

Cheek by Jowl never disappoints and this wonderful performance, played as one two-hour act, kept the audience totally engrossed. Their productions are not so much about seeing a play as having a theatrical experience. They manage to combine the text with a visual feast and incorporate music, chant, dance, tableaux so there is never a moment when the viewer is not engaged.

The set - a huge red bedroom with a double bed centre stage - provided a setting for religious rituals, conspiracies, a wedding, a male stripper and a death or two but the real action, the spectacle and gore, took place off stage. Every time the bathroom door opened, you knew it was going to be violent, bloody and bad news for somebody.

There was a great energy to the production but moments of absolute stillness too. Menace was everywhere but it was thrown into relief by the intense physical comedy.

It was a superb ensemble piece but the three female parts were especially strong. Annabella, played by Lydia Wilson, grew from a frivolous and fragile figure in the opening scene to a steely figure with strong moral values by the end.

Sal McKeown