From Welsh playwright Gary Owen (Iphigenia in Splott) comes another contemporary spin on a classic — Shakespeare’s story this time, set in Cardiff, where two young lovers face a very different set of problems from those confronting their aristocratic Veronese namesakes.

Alex Kirwan and Estelle Davis: Romeo & Julie. Photo © Phil Erbacher

Our Romeo (Alex Kirwan) is an unemployed teenage dad struggling to care for the baby he fathered in a one-night stand. He lives with an alcoholic mother who wants him to give the child up to social services. Both will have a better life if he does, Mum argues – and at this point, it’s easy to be swayed by her reasoning.

From one of the slightly posher streets in the neighbourhood comes Julie (Estelle Davis), a bright young woman with ambitions to study physics at Cambridge. It’s all she has wanted since she was 12, and her parents have done everything they can to support her journey.

They meet in a library café where Romeo has nodded off while his baby sleeps in a pram. Julie is concerned at first, then sees an opportunity to burnish her Cambridge application with a spot of community work.

They flirt, something clicks and, within minutes, Romeo has her phone number. A whirlwind romance ensues – much to the annoyance of Julie’s parents (Linda Nicholls-Gidley and Christopher Stollery), who fear Romeo will derail her studies if not her future. When Julie announces she’s pregnant, their worst fears seem realised.

Can the young lovers make a go of it? Can they raise a child while growing up themselves? And if not, who will sacrifice for the good of the other?

Alex Kirwan and Estelle Davis: Romeo & Julie. Photo © Phil Erbacher

Without adhering closely to Shakespeare’s plot points – there are no sword fights, wise nurses or kindly friars – Owen tells a compelling story in Romeo and Julie, one that combines kitchen-sink drama with piercing observations about social class in Britain and the difficulty of escaping the expectations imposed at birth.

His depiction of working-class life is warm yet unsentimental, and this production by Mad March Hare – directed by Claudia Barrie, who also plays Romeo’s hard-partying mother, Barb – largely has its measure. The two leads are appealing, the lovers’ chemistry fizzes, and the play’s revelations draw audible gasps from the audience.

Perhaps more thought might have gone into the set: Geita Goarin’s design is functional, but non-specific.

On this opening night, things derailed somewhat after the interval, however, as technical issues appeared to force the cast into survival mode. As a result, the climax – despite committed work from Kirwan and Davis — fell short of its full emotional impact. Even so, the production’s emotional core remains intact, and once those wrinkles are ironed out, this Romeo and Julie should land with real force.

Romeo & Julie plays at KXT on Broadway, Sydney until 23 May.