Synopsis The story of frustrated young (illegally young in modern terms) love and death and the vendetta between two families in a tight-knit Italian community. One of Shakespeare's most popular and enduring dramas it has also been re-done as film, ballet, musical (most notably "West Side Story") and ice spectacular! The Complete Works
A word of warning to anyone planning to see this Romeo and Juliet, the opening production in the RSC's year-long Complete Works festival - get to the theatre in good time. Miss the opening few minutes and you’re likely to spend the next three hours baffled.
For director Nancy Meckler introduces a framing device - an opening scene - which establishes this as a play being performed by a warring Italian community who set aside their grievances - and shotguns - to perform. In truth, the conceit adds little, and the exchange of the usual knife fights for Riverdance-style tapping routines, albeit admirably drilled, and the Stomp-style banging of wooden staves slips from time to time into the risible.
This said, there’s much to enjoy in Meckler’s staging, which, as anyone who saw her recent Comedy of Errors would anticipate, is beautifully and imaginatively done, aided by the designs of Katrina Lindsay and the beguiling lighting of Neil Austin.
A giant metal gantry, studded with lights, looms across the stage. It is hung, in turn, with decorations marking Capulet festivities and then, scaffold-like, with the coats of the victims of the internecine violence. Those not taking part in the drama sit on chairs at the side of the stage, or train lights on fellow actors.
Purists may, however, baulk at the 'balcony' - which here resembles a playground climbing frame, or four sets of stepladders lashed together, albeit topped with silvered foliage. And is that bare tree stage left a nod to Waiting for Godot or not?
But to the acting. It's not, in truth, a 'great' Romeo and Juliet. Of the cast, the older players come off best, notably David Fielder as a grumpier Friar Laurence than is common, Nicholas Day as Capulet and Sorcha Cusack as the Nurse (although she may prove too 'Oirish' for some tastes). James Ballard is excellent as a fleet and acid-tongued Mercutio - until an ill-judged and far too hysterical death scene.
Morven Christie captures Juliet's early skittishness well enough but is a little shrill, before growing over the course of the play. Rupert Evans as Romeo is personable and ardent but doesn't chart the same arc of development.
Eastern-sounding Sicilian songs, composed by Ilona Sekacz, and performed by an on-stage ensemble, add to the colour.
If I had to mark the RSC’s newest production of Romeo and Juliet, I would have to give it at least a nine out of ten. The whole experience could hardly have been better.
On arriving at the theatre, I was shown to my seat by a series of kind, and well presented stewards. When in the theatre, a quick look at the stage told me that even though people were still arriving the play had already begun.
It was amazing, rather than getting ready in the wings, the actors were putting their shoes on and straitening their jackets right in the middle of the stage. It made me feel as if they were trying to say that we were a part of the play too, not just an audience watching from afar but fellow actors readying our selves for two hours of hard work and emotional uproar.
Suddenly, I became aware of something happening on stage apart from the actors getting dressed. Some one was shouting, and before I could work out what had been said, all hell had broken loose, and I was given my first taste of Liz Ranken’s “fight dancing,” where instead of a sword fighting the actors tap-danced whilst hitting the floor with their weapons. Although this sounds stupid, the over-all effect worked perfectly, as the rhythm of the weapons hitting the floor mixed with that of furious heel tapping gave an impression intense aggression and violence beyond the petty, “ take that” of normal fight scenes. After this there was an abstinence watched over by a little girl, who, I suppose was meant to represent innocence but just seemed to confuse me.
As this was going on my eyes were drawn to the set, I noticed that the
raised platform dragged your eyes to the action and around the platform, on a floor covered with a red powder (which I took to symbolise blood) stood about three rows of chairs, on which all the cast that weren’t involved in the present scene sat on, looking generally interested I what was going on around them. This showed a great sense of community and that the whole city was effected by this silly brawl.
When I looked back at the main stage, I found Rupert Evans making his first appearance as Romeo. And might I add what a good appearance it was too.
- 81.159.41.83)
08 Oct 06
Absolutley amazing! I went with school and thout that Romeo's emotins were played brilliantly. He was the perfect teenage school boy in love. And he was very, may I repeat, very, fit. Juliet was very good too, but her death stripped off a mark for me. She landed on Romeo's crotch for goodness sake! - 81.159.41.83)
08 Oct 06
Romeo and Juliet review
I found that Romeo and Juliet was a well put together play. Rupert Evans played Romeo with real feeling and made you really think that he was a star stuck teenager. Morven Christie captures the changes Juliet goes through throughout the play.
Mercutio (James Ballard ) is by far the liveliest character in the play and I must say that when he dies, the performance sobers up quite a bit. The nurse, played by Sorcha Cusack, transformed this character into a perfect grandmotherly figure, especially when she comforted Romeo as well as Juliet.
Great fans of “Romeo and Juliet” may have found the balcony scene just a little odd as the “balcony” was a tower, and Juliet disappears to answer the nurse, into the floor. However I found this highly affective and enjoyed this scene.
I also really enjoyed how the weapons in the play were not swords, but long wooden poles. The fight scenes turned into furious tap dances. I found this very affective as the timing was perfect. This made everything just seems that little more aggressive.
I found the most emotional scene was the one with Juliet and Lord Capulet. Christie put so much emotion into this scene that it nearly reduced me to tears. Her sudden change in emotion made me catch my breath.
The stage, I found, was another point of interest. The floor was covered in red sand, and the centre stage was a raised wooden mini stage. This made all the main action more obvious to those watching.
The era in which the play took place is something I have been unable to work out. While many of the actors wore suits, they used lighted torches for light, except at the ball, where they used a big electric star. At the beginning they also had rifles which were given to the prince.
The most confusing parts were:
The play did not seem to have a precise start, and many actors were milling around the stage way before the first line was spoken.
Any actors who were not acting were sitting at the side and watching the play.
There was also a small girl in bunny ears, who seemed to have no part to play.
The ending scene I found most affective. As the end lines were said, the characters adopted a freeze frame which changed as the lines progressed.
After the bows were taken, I found my self thinking what a worthwhile performance this had been. Maybe not the best “Romeo and Juliet” but certainly a good one none the less.
katherine- perse school for girls, cams - 62.253.128.14)
07 Oct 06
I agree that the production was not up to the same standard that the other productions this season have reached, but I still thought that it sustained a sense of danger and youthfullness, until the final 'discovery' of the dead couple, when the entire company came onstage and did huge panto shocked faces. A more poignant and touching ending would have left grievances at the back of my mind, and allowed me to remember the merits, rather than the failings of this production. - 86.128.131.142)
15 Sep 06
You might have thought that you had arrived rather late for this RSC production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Nancy Meckler, for the opening episode showed the Montagues and Capulets (dressed in modern attire) throwing their weapons down onto a canvas sheet, which was then dragged away. A further disconcerting note was introduced by the arrival of Jonny Weir to speak the Prologue, for his physical appearance momentarily suggested that the current manager of Chelsea might be filling in the gap between football seasons with an acting job!
The apparent surrendering of their arms by the feuding families and their supporters before the action proper even began was a clever touch, clearly designed to emphasise that the dispute between them (the origin of which, of course, we never learn) was a long standing one and to show that Duke Escalus had real justification for the fury he displayed when the fighting broke out once more. This Escalus – Jonny Weir again, adopting the role by the simple expedient of adding a black bow tie to the white shirt he had previously worn open-necked, and giving a very fine performance – had a brooding intensity to his anger and an air of command that brooked no contradiction and reduced even the most eminent of Verona's other citizens to shame-faced or sullen silence.
Their guns having been taken away from them, the Montagues and Capulets had to duel with long staves, and their brawls became ritualistic dances in which these alternative weapons were wielded with great skill. This made the production at times seem to hover on the edge of becoming a piece of dance theatre but was nevertheless very effective, somehow only serving to enhance the sense of danger which accompanied the fights.
The modernity of the production's presentation helped to impress upon us that this is a play about youth and the portrayals of the eponymous characters were completely in keeping with this. Rupert Evans – a Romeo several years older than his Juliet but not as "grown-up" (which is, of course, just as it should be) and Morven Christie showed all the intensity and changeability in their moods that you would have expected to see in two teenagers undergoing their first experience of love, winning our hearts as they did so. They also coped admirably with the towering steel frame that in this production represented Juliet's balcony!
Mention must also be made of Jamie Ballard whose Mercutio, whilst not as fantastical as some, was nevertheless very funny – until, that is, the moments when the bitterness which lay beneath the surface of his humour suddenly and movingly broke through it. And David Fielder gave a strong performance as Friar Lawrence, whose normal down to earth frankness and composure shattered into a state of near distraction when he realised that his miscarried plan had been the cause of so much tragedy.
- 194.75.129.200)
25 May 06
I go to see this play in the hope that one day I might see a productiona and performance that really works.Have decided it is better as a ballet. - 88.108.63.130)
23 May 06
An appalling start to the Complete Works season. A school party nearby had not the faintest idea what was going on and they presumably were studying the play. No director on earth could have produced a coherent vision of the play on the detritus and metallic rubbish that littered the stage. The balcony scene was a disaster, not least because there was no balcony, just an aluminium tower. Only the actor playing Prince Escalus had any idea of how to speak the verse. Line after line was garbled, inaudible or twisted nonsensically. No magic, no drama, just pretentious incoherence. As the Daily Telegraph rightly commented, 'exactly the kind of evening that makes one despair of the RSC.' - 88.107.23.3)
17 May 06
This performance left me disappointed, mainly because of the lack of emotional impact. I was left curiously disinterested despite the greatness of the script, and wondered where the depth of emotion had gone. Tybalt's death was weak, I hardly cared about Mercutio at all, and the death of Romeo and Juliet didn't draw me in like I had hoped. The best scene by far was Capulet and Juliet, which had power and emotion and everything lacking in the rest of the performance. It seems that the director spent so much time on fancy tap sequences and staging, to ignore the fundamentals of engaging your audience. - 82.195.186.220)
27 Apr 06
Awful - 62.254.0.54)
22 Apr 06
Welthorpe and Pete Wood got it about right in their reviews. Some other reviewers were a bit harsh.
True that various innovations didn't quite come off. The dancing scenes between the warring parties, for example, were good the first time round but in the end became too repetitive and lacked the aggression that would have made the scenes more realistic. The direction was at times bitty and you needed your wits about you to appreciate the flow at the beginning of the production.
This shouldn't put anyone off seeing the play however, but don't go expecting to see a conventional R&J. - 86.142.12.253)
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