ROMEO AND JULIET

ROMEO AND JULIET

at Shakespeare's Globe

29.04.2017


Opera directors are used to controversy. To the point of audiences booing their work.
That would never happen at the Globe, of course.
With opera, experts say, you can always close your eyes. Whatever else is done to Traviata, or Meistersinger, the music survives more or less intact. Not so Shakespeare.
Daniel Kramer, Artistic Director of ENO, makes some radical choices in this, his first Shakespeare and the first show of Emma Rice's farewell season – The Summer of Love. The stage design suspends two black war-heads over the stage, with more black draping obscuring the musicians and the gallery for many in the audience.
The action emphasises violence and death. Civil brawls, black friars and funerals. Much of the text is delivered with a veneer of irony, or simply played for laughs. There is relentless extraneous business and in-your-face choreography; the bawdy badinage and phallic fun quickly wear thin. The music ranges from Keep Young and Beautiful [1933] to Dinah Washington – This Bitter Earth, movingly performed – and Sinead O'Connor, substituted for the last pages of the play – the scene ends here with Juliet's “Let me die.” There is an underscore for much of the play, as is fashionable now at this address, after the manner of video-game music - quite discreet and effective, with MD Laura Moody on cello.
The actors generally speak the text well when allowed to do so: the Queen Mab speech – no irony, no underscore – a good example from Golda Rosheuvel's Mercutio. Microphones are used, but mainly to balance speech with music. Edward Hogg's Romeo delivers lines from amongst the groundlings with exemplary clarity. Like his Juliet – Kirsty Bushell – he comes across an ageing teen, with all the annoying mannerisms and little of the charm of an actual youth. Their wooing is frequently undermined by the laughs: “He jests at scars ...” is lost beneath the guffaw that greets some irrelevant business elsewhere.
Blythe Duff makes a fine Scottish nurse; Martina Laird a ridiculously overplayed Lady C. Friar Lawrence is a very ecumenical Friar, giggly and cuddly; Gareth Snook a violent Lord Capulet. “My fingers itch...” was cut, I think, since he had already rained kicks and blows in the general direction of his wayward child.
DMs and YMCA seem symptomatic of a certain stylistic laziness; Capulet's cur pees over the stage. The bed/tomb, centre stage for much of the piece, is a powerful symbol, though hardly original, and the use of overlapping scenes lends real pace and energy to the second half. But these are not enough to rescue a misconceived, self-indulgent interpretation of a play familiar to many. Hoping that this OTT pantomime will bring people to Shakespeare is like hoping that the Roly-Polys will bring a new audience to contemporary dance.

ROMEO AND JULIET

ROMEO AND JULIET

Brentwood Shakespeare Company 

at Brentwood Theatre

21.04.2016

In fair Verona … Liz Calnan's Prologue exemplified three great strengths of this production.

Beautiful costumes, clarity of text and “two hours' traffick of the stage”.

Truth to tell, not quite everyone in the large cast was quite so well dressed, or spoke so clearly or intelligently. Two hours' traffick was achieved, thanks to deft editing.

More time might have been saved, perhaps, with cues picked up more deftly, and scenes dovetailed more snugly. Shakespeare wasn't able to have a blackout between scenes, and I always think he works best when you can't get a cigarette paper between the street and the bedchamber, say.

But these are small quibbles; June Fitzgerald' s production used the Brentwood stage effectively, with three doorways, and a clever balcony-cum-bedchamber. Plenty of room for the excellent sword-play, too.

Some fine performances: the star-cross'd lovers played by Ben Sylvester, a sympathetic Romeo making the verse sound powerful and natural, and Lisa Nunn as a child-like, innocent, impatient Juliet.

Richard Spong brought passion and insight to Mercutio, Matt Hudson made a compelling Benvolio, and there was a lovely, merry Nurse from Julia Stallard.

The death of Tybalt [Gareth Locke], and Paris's violent end [a fiery Andrew Spong] were both very effectively staged.

And the tragic dénouement had a wonderfully lit setting for Capel's monument – the shrouded Juliet in semblance of death, soon to be united on the tomb with her Romeo.

ROMEO AND JULIET


Astillero and the Mercury Company, Colchester


08.03.10




My second Romeo and Juliet this month – and both set their scene far from fair Verona.


The Mercury, in partnership with Salida productions, used a tango band – the excellent Astillero – and a 21st century tréteau nu.


The stage was stripped back to the bare walls, with a makeshift bare wooden dais, and smaller one in the front stalls. There was a good deal of movement through the auditorium, too: the balcony scene was all over the place.


Beginning with the laid-back band wandering on to start the show. They were much more than accompaniment, taking minor roles, like the “can you read” Capulet's man, and memorably, assembling like the Mechanicals, scripts in hand, to do a bridging scene.


Gus Gallaher's Romeo came on as a hoody, and gave a strong, well-spoken performance, even doubling Paris at one point. His Juliet, Maria Victoria Di Pace, had a touching immediacy, but was more expressive in her dance than in her words. Partly because, even miked up, she struggled to be heard over the band, and partly because her English, though clearly enunciated, was not to the manner born.


The supporting cast were superb – Keith Dunphy's sandalled Friar, Ian Pirie's incandescent Capulet, and Shuna Snow's Nurse, young,loud, with an amazing vocal range and huge presence.


The end came quickly [how often have we wished it so!] with an electrifying moment when Romeo slumps and Juliet sits up, and the two fathers are reconciled with a handshake over the corpses.


The meeting of tragedy and tango was a potent blend, with the music making the words all the more moving. The power of Ed Hughes' production, with its unbuttoned emotions, its bawdy and bravado, stunned the audience, and managed to enthral and involve the hyper horde of young teens at the back of the auditorium - “run through the ear with a love song” ...

ROMEO AND JULIET

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at the Old Court

24.02.10

An exciting and imaginative production from Beth Walters and her company.

What a triumph to get so many talented youngsters onto the Old Court stage.

Graffiti over the auditorium, Prokofiev fighting a losing battle with Punk on the soundtrack.

The paparazzo prologue [Barry Taylor] captures it all on camera, the first kiss, the brawls and the ball – he's even flashing away behind the Queen Mab speech [Charles Allenby a physically impressive Mercutio].

Paris has an elegant PA for a page [Kelly McGibney, also assaulted, not for the first time, at the top of the show in a messily violent rumble], Stanley knives and chains are the weapons of choice, Lady Capulet, the excellent Emma Moriaty, is always elegant, and uses her daughter's wedding as an excuse to shop …

Lois Jeary, in a welcome return to CTW, is a teenage Juliet, giggly, flirty, moody - “sixteen”, for some reason in this reading. She also masters the sound and the sense of Shakespeare's verse, not always a strong point of this production. Dave Hawkes [another welcome comeback] also speaks Montague with real style and understanding. Harry Sabbarton is a cherubic Romeo, red of hose and hair, and makes another convincing teen, but tended to lose some of his words upstage or to the floor.

I was also impressed with Tony Ellis's Tybalt, and Dan Ford, touching in the last Act as Romeo's man, Balthasar.

The small stage is effectively used - I liked the bed/bier, the use of the gauze. The “death” of Juliet is very skilfully done.

A pacy, robust production, confident in its own style. You should see it if you can – still tickets left, from the Civic Theatre Box Office.

Jim Hutchon was there on the first night for the Chelmsford Weekly News:

For her début as a director, Beth Walters could have chosen a less demanding project. That she pulled it off in spades is a testament to her imagination, along with her assistant director Sara Nower, and the skill, commitment and sheer hard work of a large and predominantly young cast. Although the costumes were a weird modern mix of punk and rock and Italian suits, the language was wisely maintained in the original.
Billed with the announcement that “This is not a love story” – which it is – the director managed to achieve a better balance between the antics of the star-crossed lovers and the rest of the action, which made for a more rounded and satisfying performance.
Key plaudits must go to Lois Jeary as a school-girly Juliet, who made the part her own and used the archaic language as if it were normal speech. Harry Sabberton as a punk Romeo was equally articulate and highly energetic, though some of his inward-looking soliloquies were barely audible. Simon Thomas as Lord Capulet was impressive, especially when angered, and Lynne Foster as Juliet’s nurse and confidant kept up a supportive and entertaining presence throughout. In fact, there were few weaknesses other than a certain loss of language rhythm among any of the cast, and the characters were all solidly introduced and maintained.
A small caveat was the lack of much sense of time or location. To fit in all the action, the author sets scenes at strange times of day, night and dawn, and emphasising them with appropriate lighting would have helped the story along. Equally, the commendably minimal set had to double for a number of locations, and, I felt, lost some of the atmosphere in the process.
This production runs into a second week, from 3rd to 6th March, and is one of CTW’s must-see productions.


photo by Tony Ellis