Romeo and Juliet: A Zoom
RomeoandJuliet2021 - I love how they worked the empty theatre space — with Derek Jacobi giving the Prologue and initial conversations taking place in socially distanced seating…
The sets are lavish and extravagant, and yet the theatre is utilised in unusual ways, such as Romeo’s locker room hangout; or Romeo and Juliet’s rooftop meeting place.
It was a mixed production overall — Juliet has lost a parent — her father and mother have been borged into her authoritarian, confident, controlling mother. The loss of the parental conflict makes her mother totally bad Queen evil stepmother material; and kind of sidelines the unwanted marriage material Prince to a walk on part in super florals. We lose here why her parent(s) might want her to marry the Prince at all.
It does bring Friar Lawrence into his own. Here here he is more of a wise and trusted favourite teacher rocking organic coffee and Geography teacher chic than a Priest in a fantastic room of Hydroponics and Aereoponics — the modern dress can be confusing here as the costumes don’t always give the visual cues of who belongs to which side, social status or indeed who is who. But for the Friar the modern dayness works.
The problems with the modern costuming come into force in the fight scenes. It works well for Mercutio — all EMO, but for the others — who is who? There isn’t enough distinctiveness or the sense of tribe that comes into the play.
But the person who did come into focus was the Nurse. Normally bawdy and ridiculous, her character (perhaps with the borging of Juliet’s parents) became a strong person in her own right, and an ally rather than just a household servant. And one, who through being frequently tired, can be easily duped. Juliet’s character too came into sharp focus — young, bright, beautiful and more thoughtful than usual. Juliet was made much more believable, fully rounded as a character and thinking and intelligent. The attraction and romance between Juliet and Romeo was believable.
Modernity had hit the speaking too. A lot of it was clunky and just didn’t have the rhythm. Compared to the stunning production of Julius Caesar I saw recently where everyone’s diction, sense of pace and pronunciation was perfection (contemporary but perfection); this was a bit hit and miss and it detracted from the play. It was a bit like Andrew Scott’s Hamlet when he just didn’t speak in poetry, but almost off beat, flatly in doing the big thinking speeches. In trying to make Shakespeare more of a convo, more chatty, it lost a lot and emphasis was all over the shop.
