There really isn’t any way this couldn’t be the top of my list this year. It feels kind of ridiculous that I only saw it for the first time in March, because by the time I see the last performance next April I’m going to have seen it at least twelve times. It still thrills me every time and makes me cry and fills me with joy – and I’m still spotting new things at each performance. I love the RSC a ridiculous amount anyway, but this production made me completely fall in love with a play I’d always dismissed (more fool I). I’ve spent too long thinking about this play (and far too long writing about it) to encompass it here, so instead I’m going to try and pick out my favourite parts of the production (you know, beyond that is the ensemble and the RSC and has amazing actors and amazing verse speaking and a thrust stage). ETA: as this got ridiculously long anyway it boils down to a) the passion, b) all the actors are amazing and c) it makes me think thinky thoughts:
1) ALL OF VERONA IS A POWDER KEG:- Really, right from the beginning this play is throbbing with anger and passion. They set someone on fire! But what I really love is that this feels to me like it extends beyond the Montagues and the Capulets, the whole city feels like it will explode at any moment and the Prince is barely keeping on top of it all. Even the servants at the beginning are stripped of everything that establishes them as Montague and Capulet, there fight could be between any factions in the city and once it starts it drags more and more people in. It builds the tension and I think it makes the reactions of Mercutio and Tybalt and Romeo and Juliet make so much more sense, they are reacting like everyone else in the town – mostly crazy.
2) ROMEO:- Romeo sounds like a stupid thing to pick out – the plays called Romeo and Juliet for gods sake, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Romeo I actually liked before. I’ve always thought that he was a bit whiny and inconsistent and that both of the lovers were frankly ridiculous and annoying. I was wrong. So, so wrong. Sam Troughton is excellent as Romeo – he plays the impulsiveness and lust so incredibly, he makes Romeo a character driven by his passions, who finds a sudden stillness in Juliet that’s utterly transformative for him. It’s a compelling change. Plus he never plays the scenes completely the same twice. Two of my favourite scenes for this are the balcony scenes either side of the interval (i.e. not the famous one) – before the interval I’ve seen him rush to Juliet and I’ve seen him on his knees begging for forgiveness. And after the interval he’s still been wrapped in joy or he’s been confused or scared – he’s clung to Juliet or on one occasion that stuck with me he could barely bring himself to touch her and they sat apart. The consistent variation is incredible.
3) JULIET:- But as much as I Iove Romeo, this production is all about Juliet for me. Mariah Gale is amazing. She practically glows throughout this for me. I never fail to find the way she throws herself around the dance in the ball scene enthralling, or how quickly her mind seems to work. She is so clever and bright and so determined in every single moment, even if the next moment will be entirely different. She is committed to her very core. She reminds me a lot of Mercutio oddly, they are similar in a lot of ways, which obviously adds another dimension to her relationship with Romeo. And as I said before I think she becomes something of an anchor for Romeo, in the way that nothing else has been and when he thinks she is dead – he’s cast loose and desperate. This was particularly true for me when I saw Mariah against Dyfan, who was an excellent, though very different, understudy Romeo – his Romeo (which I also rather loved) was much more hesitant and self doubting and it worked wonderfully against Juliet’s certainty – her appeal was so obvious and then his fascination with/devotion to her was so appealing for her, because I think she is so often not noticed at the beginning of the play... Ummm... sorry tangent. But, yep, I actually think Juliet is one of my absolute favourite heroines almost solely based on Mariah Gale’s performance.
4) COSTUMES:- I think the costumes have probably been discussed by more people than anything else in the production – costumes generally seem to upset people in the theatre. Rupert Goold is definitely doing something interesting with them in this – with a mix of costumes from Elizabethan to Steampunk to Pirate to Modern and I can’t even begin to understand or explain everything he’s doing with it. But I do love it – particularly all the gorgeous dresses for the girls (the way the servants dresses move fill me with envy – even though they do seem a bit rich for their social class) and Lord Capulet’s ridiculous (and awesome) boots. But what I love most is that the way Romeo and Juliet are separated from those surrounding them by their modern clothes but also that it makes that moment when they see each other at the ball, it gives them an instant connection and recognition. It makes their attraction palpable for the audience.
5) THE CRAZY CAPULETS:- Almost as much as I love Juliet – I love her crazy, twisted, incestuous family. This production for me is as much about watching the Capulet family tearing each other apart. One of my favourite scenes is the one at their breakfast table in the second half where you see them shift between grief and forced closeness and violent anger. It’s both disturbing and compelling and it’s the real driving force of the play. One of the little choices they made with this production that I think is awesome is that during the dance you suddenly spot Tybalt and Lady Capulet kissing – passionately and that tiny moment throws everything into a different light (and has given me a huge fanon about how Tybalt should really be the head of the family by right) – it heightens Lady Capulet’s grief at his death, focuses the tension between Tybalt and Lord Capulet, deepens Tybalts frustration and barely controlled aggression, and provokes Capulets desire for control. I could watch the relationship between those three playing out for hours.
6) DISEMPOWERMENT:- Alongside the violence and passion in this production, there’s a deep vein of powerlessness and disempowerment as well. I’ve already mentioned this in terms of the Prince and I certainly see it within the Friar and the young lovers, but for me its best represented by Lord Capulet. Every other production I’ve seen has played Capulet as all powerful and I understand that desire, but in this he is wearing the mask of power to hide how little he truly has and how much is beyond his control. And it works so much better for me – it’s why he is so intent on controlling Juliet, she is his last opportunity. I think it also motivates a lot of the other characters to their most desperate acts – whether it’s Tybalt’s fighting or Mercutio’s bravado or the lover’s suicide – they’re all trying to take back some control, to leave some mark of themselves. Also this is one of those issues that I love to see explored (wade through my Drunks review for more evidence... much more evidence).
7) DANCE:- Ah, I have already described this Verona as throbbing with anger and passion in the fight at the beginning, but the joyful, energetic side of that is carried through to the Capulet Ball. It never fails to fill me with glee when the play reaches it. The fun of it all is infectious. There are scantily clad people and chanting and dashing around and fire literally bursting from the floor. And there are lots of bits of choreographical pairing that fill me with happiness – Tybalt dances with the nurse, Juliet dances with her father – it is the little glimpses of relationships at their best we only see at their worst, if at all. And then in the middle of that you get Juliet and Romeo’s first meeting, and once Juliet stuck her tongue out at him and my heart all but exploded. :D
8) MUSIC:- Obviously a big part of the dance scene is the music within it (Morrocan inspired, or so I’ve heard I think) – but there are bits and pieces of music throughout that I think are awesome. From the choral chanting at the beginning that issues you into the theatre to the beautiful piece of music that Romeo is listening to her just before he hears of Juliet’s ‘death’. I personally don’t like the way the news is sung to him but I am sort of digging the idea my friend raised of Balthasar as a castrato (even more disempowerment).
9) BANISHED:- My other favourite scene (I have lost count of how many favourites I have and why are there no pictures of it???) is the way they do the two banished scenes, overlapping each other – so clever and the way Romeo and Juliet echo each other gives me so many feelings. They make it feel like the end of the world. Plus all four actors absolutely nail these scenes.
10) PARIS’S FLOWERS:- A very little one to end with and a bit silly but even whilst I think this production clearly shows that Paris and Juliet completely wouldn’t work (their brains just work differently) it also makes me sigh a little that Paris spends the whole play carrying his flowers for Juliet around, trying to give them to her – until he finally has to scatter them on her grave. It’s sort of sweet.
So there you go and I've barely touched on some awesome parts of the production - Jonjo's Mercutio! Noma's Nurse! Forbe's Friar Laurence! The fight scenes!
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