Matti Houghton as Juliet and Liam Bergin as Romeo. Photo by Richard Stanton.

It is unusual to picture the warring families of the Montagues and the Capulets as savage tribes scavenging a living from the ruins around them – but the setting of Ludlow Castle makes Kate Saxon’s bold version of Shakespeare’s tale of doomed lovers more than convincing, writes Hannah Costigan.

Romeo and Juliet is at the heart of this year’s Ludlow Festival, which starts tonight. The characters in Kate Saxon’s Romeo and Juliet are in a brutal setting, wearing battered and studded leather, along with scraps of cloth that look like they could have been salvaged from a rubbish heap.

When the Capulets hold a celebration feast, the masks they wear are ugly and disfiguring and their dancing is more of a tribal ritual than a high class party. This is a world where everyone is at war, everyone carries a knife and a lady’s fan is a deadly weapon.

Against this backdrop, Matti Houghton as Juliet and Liam Bergin as Romeo bring a well-contrasted tenderness in to the performance. Their first kiss is touchingly awkward as their masks get in the way.

Houghton has the hard task of making a young character, supposedly just 14, seem mature enough to make the decisions she does and she succeeds, particularly in the second half, in making the audience believe Juliet fully grasps the enormity of her future.

Liam Bergin does a good job too in taking Romeo from a moping daydreamer to a passionate lover pushed to despair.

They are provided with excellent support, particularly from Phillipa Peak as the Nurse and Michael Jenn as Friar Laurence.

Like the costumes, the stage and set is similarly coarse and demands a lot of work from the actors. They swing from monkey bars, run up and down twisting flights of stairs and perch precariously on posts and beams.

This production is definitely a break with more traditional versions of the play and makes full use of its unusual setting. At two-and-a-half hours including the interval, it’s not too long and is well worth watching. Just remember to wrap up warm – and it’s probably a good idea to bring a cushion.