The Royal Shakespeare Theatre echoes with the sound of noisy crickets as you take your seat, with the stage bathed in warm light.

There is no doubting that the RSC's new production of Romeo and Juliet is to be a steamy affair rooted firmly in Italy. But the setting seems to have far more to do with the rural south than the northern city of Verona, where Shakespeare sets his tale of the star-crossed lovers.

The women dress in black while two warring families have at their heads fearfully proud men who resemble Mafia bosses. The young men sweat and gulp water between bouts of horseplay and blood letting. But the real heat of this production is provided by the passion of the young lovers, played by highly rated RSC newcomers Morven Christie and Rupert Evans.

With the iconic romantic tragedy chosen to launch perhaps the biggest undertaking in the RSC's history a year-long festival covering the complete works of Shakespeare much is riding on this.

Thankfully, director Nancy Meckler delivers a production that shows a welcome readiness to take risks. There are impressive performances from David Fielder as Friar Laurence and Nicholas Day as Juliet's dangerously capricious father. Sorcha Cusack, over three years our favourite character in television's Casualty, throws herself with relish into the role of a markedly Irish nurse.

Yet it is a production that can threaten to over-reach itself in search of originality. The Sicilian wailing can be distracting, while the fight scenes are extended dance rituals with much stick waving, that first intrigue but quickly irritate.

Hopefully, the countless fight sequences that lie ahead from the field of Agincourt to Wakefield will come with more steel.

But these are blemishes on a production that brims with confidence, from the moment it announces itself with a solemn handover of rifles and weapons before the violence inevitably reignites.

The youthfulness of the two lovers shines through, with their taut but fragile edginess ensuring a heartbreaking climax to this most familiar of Shakespeare's stories. The scene in the tomb is particularly memorable, setting a standard that subsequent festival casts must now match. Romeo and Juliet runs until October 14.