11 replies to this topic

[richard]

Romeo and Juliet survives because of its poetry:

Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

R & J is not of course a tragedy of character, but a catastrophe of strayed messages (even Romeo's arrival at the Capulet's Masked Ball is because of the interception a letter intended elsewhere.)
If Friar Laurence had been able to e-mail Romeo in Mantua, instead of sending the incompetent Friar John, the situation could have been saved.

Mind you, if the crossroads at Laius had had a little green man pedestrian signal, Oedipus Rex wouldn't have come to the end he did!

Sadly, R & J has attracted some awful productions of late, particularly the one that started the RSC Complete Works Season, which was in a category of its own for its dire dreadfulness.  But a lot can be forgiven a work that inspired Profofiev's wonderful ballet.

[richard]

  Postscript correction!
Rushing to post the above I abbreviated one sentence - the crossroads was of course at a lonely place near Thebes and it was King Laius who would have survived initially if there had been a pelican crossing!  First recorded instance of road rage!


Another fatal mistake, as Rhymer's Strictures on Othello emphasise, is that the lesson of Othello is that ladies should look well to their linen!