A weapons amnesty has clearly been declared in Verona. As Romeo and Juliet begins, members of the feuding families of Capulet and Montague are seen handing in their guns and rifles in an operation overseen by Prince Escalus (Jonny Weir), whose cheesy evening suit suggests his next engagement might be compering the cabaret at the local casino. The deadly weapons are carried away in a tarpaulin, and the quarrelling toughs are now obliged to make do with long wooden staffs, with which, you presume, they might be less likely to harm each other. Wrong, of course.

These odd implements are the Big Mistake of Nancy Meckler's in many ways excellent production, which launches the RSC's ambitious Complete Works season that will be occupying Stratford's stages for the next year. The fight scenes central to the action of this great play are transformed into something not very far from comedy as the sticks are swung about during choreographed routines that also involve a lot of rhythmic foot stamping from the pugilists. It is as if Robin Hood's Merry Men had teamed up with The Cloggies.

A further layer of strangeness is added by the director's decision to relocate Verona to southern Italy, with the families transformed into rival mafiosi and a three-strong choir of women singers contributing plangent Sicilian melodies as a background to the action. Yes, we know about family honour and all that, but that's no less likely to exist in the north.

Fortunately, once the production's peculiarities are dismissed from the mind, the play emerges as compelling and rewarding drama. Performances throughout the cast are of the high standard we have come to expect (and have a right to expect) from this great company, not least those offered by the two newcomers who play the star-crossed lovers. Morven Christie presents a fragile but far from vulnerable Juliet one with something of a gift for acrobatics, too, when she delivers the "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" speech from atop a four-sided ladder that bizarrely serves as the balcony. Scenes with her devoted Nurse (Sorcha Cusack) never fail to charm though this reviewer is getting slightly tired of seeing the garrulous domestic given the 'Oirish' treatment (a fate that also befalls the Capulets' servant Peter, as played by Sam O'Mahony-Adams with more than a hint of Jimmy Cricket).

From Rupert Evans comes one of the finest accounts of Romeo I have seen from the mooning lover of the early scenes, through the all-consuming passion of his love for Juliet, to the grief approaching madness when it seems that his banishment will keep him from her for ever. The scene in which he writhes and wails in Friar Laurence's cell is superbly managed as is the withering reaction of that robust priest (David Fielder): "Art thou a man?" a great speech magnificently delivered.

Another truly excellent performance comes from Nicholas Day, as Capulet, whose affable exterior is seen to mask iron will and ruthless determination in the shocking scene in which he rounds on Juliet for her refusal to marry Paris (Simon Bubb). Here, truly, is the mafia Godfather. Maybe Ms Meckler was right to give us Sicily after all.