Romeo & Juliet - Globe

[couldileaveyou]

It got nice reviews, has anybody here seen it?

They cancelled today's show due to a positive case in the company

[lonlad]

Nice reviews? 4 stars from the Grauniad and pans almost everywhere else (the i, Arts Desk, Times, londontheatre.co.uk etc etc)

[daisy24601]

I saw it last night. It's an interesting production in that they include some facts and figures on suicide and youth which brought the characters into the 21st century instead of being these almost fairytale figures. My friend and I commented on how people are always people no matter what era they are from.

Aside from that there were some parts of the modernisation I enjoyed (the costumes, the fight), and others not so much (the ball). The end was superbly acted and quite shocking. It was my first trip to the Globe and I really enjoyed it.

[peggs]

Have seen but too tired now so will come back tomorrow to say more but I went away and couldn't stop thinking about it in a good way.

[peggs]

I'm not a big R and J fan, remember doing it at school and just thinking they needed to get a grip (no romantic teen me). Apart from that I saw the last Globe version which was all sad face, dancing dinosaur, second half blocked by prop roses and digitally the last RSC one and the previous Globe one.

I took a while to get into this, thought partly that was the oddness of a silent audience. I found the interspersed facts on mental health a bit clunky in the way they did it but did make me think. And at times the musical accompaniment/choices about which speeches you heard, drove me rather mad. I missed most of Mercutio's Queen mab speech drowned at by the drum which was apparently beating out the iambic pentameter ( I missed that in my irritation). I saw only I think maybe the third performance and suspected that certain performances would grow as it went on as some were rather muted I felt.

But it made me think in a way R and J has never done before. Rather than seeing them as sappy teens they're intense connection against a background of unsatisfactory parental relationships and the death of two close friends/cousins with the added in info about how developing brains work and the mental health implications it made a lot of sense. I had a strong reaction of how badly let down they were by all the adults (who themselves are pretty messed up as well). The required distancing of the cast actually worked, their youthful bating of the nurse and horror when violence ended in death was palpable. The impact of Tybalt's death on Juliet worked as they'd earlier appeared to actually had a relationship to lose. Paris' insistence on urging the marriage felt creepy. Everyone was physically or emotionally scared already from the violence and all the deaths (the nurse' child, Juliet's siblings) that had gone before. It felt pertinent to now and had an urgency, a message about it that I'd not seen before. The emptiness of the globe paid off in the moments where they was absolute silence. And the deaths were drawn out and ugly and I don't know, i hesitate to say real as what do I know but Romeo really choked and curled up in pain on that poison, people didn't have clean (not in the blood sense) quick deaths but uncomfortable ones that supported the productions ideas. These were no romantic, to sing songs about sort of deaths, just waste.

[cavocado]

How are they adding in the extra info/statistics? New dialogue? Big screen? (If you can say without spoilers). I can't imagine how this would work, but it does make me more interested in seeing this production out of curiosity. I like modern parallels, even when they're heavily underlined. I also get a bit bored by teen romance and I like R&J productions to be firmly focused on the violent feud spiralling out of control with nobody able or willing to stop it.

[peggs]

I don't really think it's a mass spoiler but I'll show willing and try and put in spoilers

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
There is a black screen above the middle of the stage, like the one used for captions if a captioned performance if you've ever seen on of those. The statement appears there in red I think text and at the same time one of the actors will step up and read the same stat out.

It was a bit clunky when I went as didn't seem entirely seemless but then that was early days and that may not have been the design. But did really make me think. I'd say the violence was like Bourne film violence as opposed to old Bond films, people look and stay battered. Think the globe has just put on their youtube channel the session they did last year with a couple of the cast, director and specialists that they did on mental health and how that plays in, I found that very interesting at the time. 

[cavocado]

Thank you. It sounds like it could be either brilliant or a disaster, but your description and the scathing Spectator review made me book a ticket! www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-shrill-ugly-tasteless-muddle-romeo-and-juliet-reviewed

[peggs]

Jul 16, 2021 13:34:29 GMT cavocado said:

Thank you. It sounds like it could be either brilliant or a disaster, but your description and the scathing Spectator review made me book a ticket! www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-shrill-ugly-tasteless-muddle-romeo-and-juliet-reviewed

I do hope you think it's the former but you never can tell can you until you see something. 

[cavocado]

Finally saw this yesterday. I missed my original booking back in July due to self-isolating, but decided to rebook after the recent discussion on the 'has the Globe lost it's spark' thread.

As peggs previously said, there's a series of facts/info about teenage mental health and social issues posted on a screen at the back of the stage, and an actor will say each one as they appear. They also had each actor saying hello at the start e.g. "I'm Alfred and I'm playing Romeo", so I'd say the idea was to make it accessible to new theatregoers and attract younger people with the promise of a hard-hitting focus on a big social issue relevant to them. So I wasn't the target audience, and that's fine. It was certainly a much younger audience than I normally see in the theatre, and they seemed enthusiastic, so on the face of it they've succeeded.

I liked the fast pace of the storytelling, with scenes overlapping and actors starting scenes while the dead characters from the previous scenes are still on stage. For me the screen statements were a bit intrusive and too prescriptive in telling us what we were meant to take away from each scene, though the issues they raised were interesting. I like to see a range of different interpretations of Shakespeare, and I don't mind productions that don't really work for me if I can see that what they've tried to do is worthwhile. I'd put this one into that category: I liked the focus on mental health, and I admired the bold ideas, but for me the execution of it was a bit clumsy. I also agree with Peggs about some speeches being drowned out by music.

I will hide the next bit in a spoiler, just in case anyone has no idea what happens in the end of R&J:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
It ended almost immediately after R&J die, so cutting out most of the resolution/denoument where everyone discovers what has happened and the speeches vowing to make amends and change their ways. To me this changed it into a play which centred teenage suicide and finished with a bleak sense that this society would not move on. The final 'speech' was about how you can get support if you've been affected by these issues... It felt slightly irresponsible that they missed out the bit that shows the remorse and grief that these deaths cause, and the desire of those left to learn from their mistakes.

[peggs]

Was Parish/the prince off yesterday out of interest? We had someone parachuted in today but he knew it ever so well so wondered if he'd been on for a while cavocado

Took my niece today, she said she'd really liked it though she clearly still thinks I'm a loon for advocating the need to queue to stand.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
I think in an interview I watched/read that I think was about this production but might possibly have been about a whole different one, they alluded to the response of the remaining parents as being to build a big gold statue and that they hadn't really learnt anything as they were still trying to outdo? I hadn't really thought about it having a different ending, I think I thought the families were just ruined and there wasn't really any positive going forward anyway.

[cavocado]

peggs, yes, he was off self-isolating on Saturday. I'd forgotten by the end because the understudy (not even sure he was an official understudy?) did a decent job. 

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
Good point about the statue, but I think that would have made quite a good ending to this version - showing that, even in grief, the parents are focused on outward show rather than real emotions.

I'm glad your niece liked it. Was the groundling area crowded? It was packed on Saturday - made me feel a bit uneasy as I've not seen a crowd like that for ages, but there was a great atmosphere.

[peggs]

No they don't have understudies so it's whoever that can draft in, I know he ended up playing Maria in Twelfth Night about a month back when they lost a cast member so they must have him on speed dial.

Yes full, the yard was sold out as i'd tried buying another ticket for niece number two once it turned out she'd based her decision to not come on the understanding that all shakespeare was done like ballet, in tights, no speaking and loads of ballet? It's been that most of the times I've gone this summer since i'm limited to weekends which are presumably more popular.

Yes they could have done that I guess re your spoiler, I think for me it would have lessened the impact but it's not a play I had fond feelings for before so I didn't miss the cuts.

[cavocado]

That's interesting about your other niece's idea of shakespeare. I've often come across a perception that his plays are irrelevant, inaccessible and only for very intellectual people - definitely not entertaining! So I think the Globe is quite right to do productions that try and break through that. It will be interesting to see what they do next summer.

[peggs]

I should have been clearer, my niece says she was forced to watch R and J the ballet at primary school and she assumed now that, that is what she would see again if she'd come with me. I'm not really sure why since she knew it was ballet she thought that was the only way it is done but there's where she's at.

I met a lady at the theatre the other day who said her daughter had studied Macbeth at school and that had made it her favourite play but don't think that's the average person's experience, certainly wasn't exciting, compelling, relatable for me.

[TallPaul]

Shakespeare without Shakespeare's words is the only kind of Shakespeare worth watching! And Prokofiev did write some lovely tunes. 🙂

(Though knowing some of Shakespeare's words did come in handy for Birmingham on Monday night's University Challenge.)

[Dawnstar]

Oct 13, 2021 11:22:39 GMT TallPaul said:

Shakespeare without Shakespeare's words is the only kind of Shakespeare worth watching! And Prokofiev did write some lovely tunes. 🙂

With the exception of Much Ado About Nothing, I think I've preferred every ballet/opera/musical adaptation I've seen to Shakespeare's originals! I'm currently very much enjoying the Royal Ballet's latest Romeo & Juliet revival: 2 casts already seen & another tonight, then more in January/February. The Globe's Romeo & Juliet, on the other hand, having read reviews & seen production pictures, I wouldn't go & see if you paid me to do so.

[cavocado]

Oh no, I definitely prefer it with words!