Romeo and Juliet
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2006
1
3
7
Trip End
Jun 30, 2006
Startford-Upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
This production was banal. Really dreadful. It was like a local high school production. The actors basically stood and delivered their lines. There was nothing new, nothing challenging, nothing different (which is badly need in any R&J because of over-exposure.)
The cast was made up of the younger members of the RSC, no old stagers, and their inexperience showed. Not that it is their fault, the director should be shot!
The only innovation, and it made no impact on the enjoyment of the play, was to have the characters in modern, gang style dress (nothing really new about that) and they all had wooden sticks which they banged on the ground a lot (reminiscent of Tap Dogs) and they did a lot of tap dancing during the fits scenes - a la West Side Story. That was interesting in that the knock-off has fed back to the original.
But that was it as far as interesting. I wanted to strangle Juliet, who really looked 13yo and that was a bit creepy, and Romeo was equally as annoying. Mercutio was good but not enough to save the play.
The balcony scene was achieved by Juliet climbing a scaffolding/ladder thing by entering from a trap door, then sort of hanging off it. Romeo climbed a few rungs, she came down a few rungs. It was original, but not very good.
Coming after the more mature love story of Antony and Cleopatra this play really paled in comparison. Although they both also act foolishly, there was more passion and real emotion in Patrick Stewart's hair piece than Romeo and Juliet could muster.
½ star: I can't tell you how the second half went because I left at interval. Very disappointing.
