‘Romeo & Juliet’ on PBS Proves Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley are Once-in-a-Generation Greats

There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about a major theater putting on William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in 2021. It’s a show that keeps getting revived, revisited, reimagined, and revamped for new generations every couple of weeks it seems. But the National Theatre’s latest adaptation of Romeo & Juliet — premiering tonight on PBS’s Great Performances — is something special. Filmed over seventeen days in an empty theater last year, Romeo & Juliet is something of a coronation for actors Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. The two rising stars prove here that they’re two of the brightest talents in their generation and that they’ll be gobbling up awards for decades to come.

Romeo & Juliet is one of the most famous stories in all the world. A powerful family feud between the Montagues and the Capulets is on the verge of going supernova in the Renaissance Italy city state of Verona. While the two families are wrangled into an uneasy truce, the teen heirs of both clans meet at a party and fall in love at first sight. The impetuous Montague, Romeo, and the Capulets’ only daughter, Juliet, hastily arrange a wedding. However, when Romeo’s best friend Mercutio is murdered by Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, Romeo kills the offending Capulet in revenge. He is exiled and Juliet is promised to another. The priest who married the young lovers proposes a daring plot to have Juliet fake her own death to be reunited with her love. Romeo never learns it’s a ruse and kills himself at his bride’s grave, seconds before she is revived. She, in turn, kills herself. Never was a story of more woe than…yadda yadda yadda. You know the deal!

Shakespeare’s verse is eternal, but the draw of any major new production is to see how a new cast of actors tackles classic parts. This latest incarnation of Romeo & Juliet is certainly worth watching for its stars. Josh O’Connor just capped off a few years of turning in scene-stealing turns in titles like The Durrells in Corfu and God’s Own Country with a Golden Globe win for his take on young Prince Charles in The Crown. Likewise, Jessie Buckley has quickly become film’s latest indie darling, throwing down haunting turns in films like Wild Rose and I’m Thinking Of Ending Things. (Although mainstream audiences will probably know her best from searing dramas like Chernobyl and FX’s Fargo.) Individually, O’Connor and Buckley are ones to watch. Together, in Romeo & Juliet, they are incandescent.

The “rehearsal room” as framing device this production uses isn’t particularly fresh, but the cinematic direction of this show breathes new life into it with clever editing. As actors settle into the performance space, we find ourselves listening to Adrian Lester’s Prince deliver the famous prologue, but we’re not focused on that. The camera has settled on the faces of O’Connor and Buckley, already flirting with each other. From there, the production breezes through the beats of the story, leaving extra time only to spend on O’Connor and Buckley’s sheer ecstatic attraction to one another. It’s unclear if Romeo and Juliet’s love is true, but their lust doesn’t lie. The two actors seem intoxicated with one another, and it’s infectious.

Anyone who keeps a close eye on British TV will know the feeling of watching class after class of young actors taking on their first big roles and wondering who will actually breakout. Both O’Connor and Buckley have proven they have the acting chops, but in Romeo & Juliet, they seem to explode as stars. With the exception of Tamsin Greig’s utterly fabulous gender-bent Capulet, the rest of the cast seems locked in yet another tried and true R + J production. It’s standard stuff helped by good direction, but nothing to write home about. That is, until the camera cuts to Buckley or O’Connor.

If you’re a fan of either Jessie Buckley or Josh O’Connor’s work, Romeo & Juliet is an absolute must-watch. Both actors not only throw down great performances (pun intended), but prove they’re once-in-a-generation stars. Buckley and O’Connor aren’t just hot now. They’ve got the charisma and the talent to be great for decades to come. Romeo & Juliet on PBS’s Great Performances is less about remembering the Bard’s work than heralding a new generation of greats.

Romeo & Juliet (2021) premieres on PBS’s Great Performances tonight at 9 PM ET. 

Watch Romeo & Juliet (2021) on PBS.org