Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre

I went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon. It was the matinee performance on the last day (we put off going for weeks and nearly risked not seeing it at all). We went to Stratford by train, which was a mistake as both going there and coming back there was massive disruption, breakdowns, signalling problems.

The play is one of Shakespeare’s most famous, but possibly not his best. I have seen it many times before – as a live performance and also on film (the Zeffirelli 1968 version and the Baz Luhrmann 1996 version starring Leonardo Di Caprio). This production was good apart from the tap-dancing fight scenes, which I thought looked silly. The set designs referred to 1950s Italy and seemed to be a bit skimpy. Rupert Evans played Romeo and Morven Christie played Juliet. The play was directed by Nancy Meckler.



Above: There is an aura to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon that adds an indefinable quality to the experience. You think that because it is being performed in Shakespeare’s birthplace it must be the definitive production. We wanted to see Troilus and Cressida at Stratford when it transferred from the Edinburgh Festival but we left it too late and missed it. The theatre is to close shortly for rebuilding. The plan is to make the building bigger and grander while incorporating the original features. The reopening is scheduled for 2010.



Above: Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet has inspired many other artists – writers, painters, musicians. Prokofiev used the play as the basis of his ballet Romeo and Juliet (which I’ve seen at Covent Garden). 1980s band Dire Straits had one of their most famous hits with the song Romeo and Juliet (although the original video with its waddling bespectacled hero is seldom seen now).



Above: How realistic is the characterisation in Romeo and Juliet? Obsessive first love between teenagers can seem pathetic, even when ennobled by the poetry of Shakespeare. You might think that teenagers these days are far too cynical to fall in love (this is the era of Vickey Pollard). During the summer I was sitting at a table belonging to an outdoor café. Anyway, I began to notice a teenage couple walking backwards and forwards. They didn’t just pass by once – they went up and down the street several times. They caught my attention for several reasons. First because they were dressed very similar (there is a theory that couples end up wearing similar clothes). Also they were walking with great speed, the boy with a determined look on his face, while they went into clothes shops, gadget shops, sports shops etc. But what really marked them as unusual was the way in which they were clinging to each other. The boy was striding along while the girl had to give little runs to keep up, all the time hanging onto his arm. I looked at them and thought: that’s Romeo and Juliet.