Romeo & Juliet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Erica Whyman
Designed by Tom Piper
Music by Sophie Cotton
Royal Shakespeare Compay
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
Saturday 28thApril 2018 13.15
CAST
Afolabi Alli- Paris
Donna Banya – Gregory
Stevie Basaula – Sampson
Ishia Bennison – Nurse
Katy Brittain – Friar John / Apothecary
Raif Clarke – Peter
Beth Cordingly- Escalus
Paul Dodds – Montague
Josh Finan – Benvolio
Karen Fishwick- Juliet
Andrew French – Friar Laurence
Bally Gill – Romeo
Mariam Haque – Lady Capulet
Michael Hodgson – Capulet
Charlotte Josephine – Mercutio
Cousin Capulet – John Macaulay
Balthasar – Tom Padley
Sakuntala Ramanee – Lady Montague
Raphael Sowole – Tybalt
Nima Taleghani – Abraham
MUSIC
Michael Keelan – violin
Samantha Norman – viola
Matthew Forbes – cello, guitar
Nick Lee – guitar
James Jones – percussion
Laura Bangay- keyboard
Juliet (Karen Fishwick (Romeo (Bally Gill)
A review where I needn’t summarise the plot, nor worry about plot spoilers!
It’’s eight years since the RSC last did Romeo & Juliet, and it’s directed by Erica Whyman who directed the magnificent A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play For The Nation at the RSC two years ago. We now expect modern dress and youth culture. Leonard Bernstein brought urban youth gangs to the fore in West Side Story and Baz Lurhmann’s 1996 film cemented that association.
Romeo & Juliet relates to the colour-blindness debate at the RSC (See The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich.) Leonard Bernstein had proved with West Side Story that the core plot of Romeo & Juliet is enhanced if the Montagues and Capulets are divided by ethnicity, as well as by historic competition. Religion works too. It’s often been done since, such as the 2002 Chichester version set in Constantinople with Christians and Moslems, with Emily Blunt as Juliet. Examples are all around us of communities divided on ethnic or religious grounds. Belfast 1975 would be a good example. We probably wouldn’t dare contemplate Syria or Iraq today. However, you suspect that “colour blindness” will not allow that in a 2018 production. At the start here, the initial fight really looked as if they were taking the “Capulets black” v “Montagues white” path, but that disappeared once the principle characters came on stage.
Tybalt (Raphael Sowole) v Benvolio (Josh Finan), Lord Capulet on right (Michael Hodgson)
As in her Play for The Nation, Erica Whyman has added non-professionals to the production, here kids of the right age. The prologue speech is divided line by line around the kids at speed, then taken over, again line by line, and repeated by the professional actors.
The set is by Tom Piper, who did A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It utilises a metallic effect box, open on one side, that revolves and serves as balcony, Friar Laurence’s cell, the apothecary’s shop, and the Capulet tomb. It’s the best I’ve seen a box idea work. The back of the stage has sliding metal effect full height doors. They open on Friar Laurence scenes to reveal what looks like a full height of the theatre vertical herb garden. The lighting matches the set quality. There were many “gasp” effects for me (having worked on lights). The dawn light projected across behind the balcony, the host of LED stars descending and suspended for the Capulet party (I think “ball” is the wrong word!), the singling out of individuals. It was superb.
After Tybalt’s death, the stage was filled with a surround of bunches of red roses and red candles, reminding me that designer Tom Piper did those Tower of London poppies. It looked great, but coming home we had a different idea. Tybalt (Raphael Sowole) had enormous physical presence, towering over everyone on his first entrance, knife strapped to his chest. But let’s face it, Tybalt is a thug, he started the fight too, and in this urban setting that’s how they played him. It might have introduced a touch of comedy at the wrong point, but my companion says she had wanted to see a “descanso” or roadside tribute memorial instead of red roses. That’s what these urban youths would have done, spent a fortune on piles of flowers on the pavement where Tybalt died. We riffed on that one, and thought a huge teddy bear greeting card with “Tybalt – Bestest Dad in the Hole Wirld” should have been the centrepiece. Sorry, maybe not!
The Capulet party – I’d guess this is posed and a small section – it filled the stage
The production is strong on urgency. Once the stars descended from on high and they got into the masked Capulet party rave, I realized that this was going to be an epic version of the play. They were dancing wildly, but most frantic and fastest of all with phenomenal energy was Juliet (Karen Fishwick). Conversations came out at the front, and the rest fell back in a line writhing to dance in ultra slow motion, as when Romeo and Juliet met and kissed.
The balcony scene had a lot of humour in line interpretation and timing … I don’t think you can play it po-faced anymore. My companion always has a problem enjoying the play, as her elderly drama teacher insisted she do the balcony speech for all drama exams and auditions. There was a line change from:
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face. O be some other name
Belonging to a man.
From memory of seeing it once, “O” became “or”, “be” was deleted, and “name” became “part” with a maidenly blush of insinuation on “or some other part belonging to a man.” Excellent little revision.
Throughout, both Juliet and Romeo had interesting emphasis changes. They contrasted well, with Karen Fishwick’s luxuriant red hair. It was a very good balcony scene indeed. By the end of the play, my companion was saying that Bally Gill was the best Romeo since Di Caprio in the film, and it’s a play we’ve seen most years since. Juliet was played as fourteen, eschewing the modern switch to sixteen some directors prefer, though the nurse originally says “not fourteen till Lamass tide.” So thirteen. She was an energetic teenager, flying into hormonal storms too when she scattered the bunches of roses.
Romeo (Bally Gill) and Benvolio (Josh Finan)
The companion parts had a twist. Benvolio (Josh Finan) held a gay torch for Romeo … his excitement when he heard Romeo was no longer interested in Rosalind was fast followed by disappointment that the new interest was female. That worked very well.
Mercutio (Charlotte Josephine), Benvolio on the right
Mercutio became female, played flat out energetically by Charlotte Josephine. With boy’s hair cut, tattoo and Multicultural London English accent she played Mercutio as completely hyper-active. I have seen Mercutio done in that style before. Headlong 2012 on tour at Southampton’s Nuffield. I said then:
Mercutio was a frenzy of gestures, pointing every double entendre graphically with mimes and hand movements. He seemed to spend half his act gesturing at his groin, rolling over and pointing furiously to his genitals while miming intercourse feverishly.
Review of Headlong production on this blog, 2012
You could simply change “he” to “she” and it still applies.Within this urban gang, it worked well, and was a strong difference.
Tybalt is mentioned above. Donya Banya does the Capulet sidekick ‘Gregory’ and that was interesting because it reminded me of the gang in one of my favourite films, The Wanderers, where the big tough gang leader (like Tybalt) has a tiny sidekick (like Gregory).
The Nurse (Ishia Bennison) with Juliet (Karen Fishwick)
The nurse (Ishia Bennison) is my favourite part in the play, and this was as good as any I’ve seen. With a North Country accent, in straight skirts and flouncy blouses with low cut, she seemed to have walked out of the sitcom Benidorm– and all the better for it. She pointed lines I’d missed, and checking the text, I think some was cut and slightly rewritten. She made a great point of going on and on while Lady Capulet and Juliet couldn’t stop her.
Lord Capulet (Michael Hodgson) with Juliet (Karen Fishwick). Lady Capulet above.
Lord Capulet (Michael Hodgson) and Lord Montague (Paul Dodds) were also first rate. Capulet’s scene where he tries to force Juliet to marry Paris is one of the most dramatic scenes in the play. He was terrific, striding, shouting, spitting, grabbing. The nurse and Lady Capulet did intense silent acting throughout his rant, stock still, cowed, radiating disapproval, but also fear, or terror, of interrupting. The programme quotes Prince Escalus at the end on male violence. The programme also has an essay on knife violence in Britain today among youth. Capulet’s rage is central to the vision, summed up by Escalus at the beginning (quoted by the director in the programme):
What, ha! You men, you beasts
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins …
Incidentally, I was so relieved to hear Escalus have the verse fit with the lines with banish-ED, and punish-ED. So often directors do the modern unstressed past ending and it always grates. They did it 16th century here. Oh, and Prince Escalus became female played by Beth Cordingly who did it with authority, and I never thought ‘Oh, this is a gender switch …’
Friar Laurence (Andrew French) with herbal background
Who else? I liked Andrew French’s laid-back take on Friar Laurence very much. A round-collared white shirt and chain and bare feet made him look “religious” without bringing in the full priestly garb. And I want a shirt like that too.
The fight: Romeo (Bally Gill), Tybalt & Mercitio
They may have been given more lines from their husbands (it says) and Lady Capulet (Mariam Haque)’s speech on Tybalt’s death was mesmerising. Lady Montague was Sakuntala Ramanee, which made me wonder if there was a conscious ethnicity match to her son, Romeo, played by Bally Gill? I assume not, but it does help visually. On which Lady Capulet was matching Karen Fishwick’s Scottish accent. I don’t know, but don’t think it’s Mariam Haque’s natural accent, so again, not “accent blind” but making sense of the Scottish accent for her daughter. Karen Fishwick’s accent did take a little getting used to for us, though was fine once we’d adjusted to it.
At the end, the dead all appear and stand … Romeo and Juliet on top of the box, Tybalt and Mercutio next to it. That’s becoming something of an overdone item in plays … Macbeth and Hamlet seem to do it more often than not!
Prince Escalus final speech (Beth Cordingley). Romeo & Juliet above are deceased. As is Mercutio on the left.
So, all in all a powerful, exciting production with a great set, lighting and sound and music. I’m torn between whether I preferred the youth urgency of this one, or the cool smooth style of Branagh’s version (with Lily James and Richard Madden) a couple of years ago. I gave that one a five … so, although I just prefer the Branagh …
*****
LIVE BROADCAST TO CINEMAS WILL BE on 18th JULY 2018
THEATRE ETIQUETTE
Really odd. Just at the start of the final tomb scene, a woman in our row took out her phone. It’s a really dark scene on stage, as well as highly dramatic, and we kept getting the bright flash of the screen in our eyes as she moved it. We looked sideways. She was texting! (What? Rom. think Jul. dead. but not! LOL probably) I tapped her very gently on the arm and pointed to it. She switched it off, but at the end of the play seemed to want to argue about it. We walked away. I have seen texting in London theatres a few times, and I’m told it’s often down to corporates buying blocks of seats to give to business visitors, who then decide they’re not really interested. But it’s certainly a first in appalling behaviour for Stratford, and a middle-aged woman, not a teenager.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
We were ahead of Press night, though full price tickets, not preview.
4 star
Dominic Maxwell, The Times ****
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph ****
This must be the most fleet-footed account of Romeo and Juliet since West Side Story. Whyman has done something bold, which is incorporate into the company a handful of pupils from schools across the country; their freshness rubs off onto the rest of the cast. The scene-setting prologue, everyone in contemporary clobber, is a playground free-for-all, a gabble of voices.
Natasha Tripney, The Stage ****
3 star
Michael Bilington, The Guardian ***
2 star
Thomas W. Hodgkinson, Sunday Times **
LINKS ON THIS BLOG:
Many of the cast are also in MACBETH, RSC 2018
ROMEO & JULIET:
- Romeo & Juliet, Headlong 2012, Nuffield, Southampton
- Romeo & Juliet 2014 – Box Clever
- Romeo & Juliet 2015 – Globe Touring Production
- Romeo & Juliet – Tobacco Factory, 2015, at Winchester Theatre Royal
- Romeo and Juliet – Branagh Company, 2016
- Romeo & Juliet, Globe 2017
- Romeo & Juliet, RSC 2018
- Romeo & Juliet, TV film, NT 2021
ERICA WHYMAN
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2016 (Bear Pit Company)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2016 (Belvoir Players)
Hecuba by Marina Carr, RSC, 2015
BALLY GILL
Macbeth, RSC 2018 (Ross)
Coriolanus, RSC 2017
Vice Versa, RSC 2017
Salome, RSC 2017
Dinner With Saddam, Menier 2015
KAREN FISHWICK
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre, 2015
RAPHAEL SOWOLE
Macbeth, RSC 2018 (Banquo)
Pygmalion, Nuffield 2016
Measure For Measure, Young Vic, 2015
MICHAEL HODGSON
Macbeth, RSC 2018 (Porter
Strife by John Galsworthy, Chichester 2016
The Shoemaker’s Holiday, by Thomas Dekker, RSC 2015
PAUL DODDS
Macbeth, RSC 2018 (Siward, Chamberlain)
Titus Andronicus, RSC 2017
Antony & Cleopatra, RSC 2017
Julius Caesar, RSC 2017
Timon of Athens, NT, 2012
BETH CORDINGLY
Love’s Sacrifice, RSC 2015
The Jew of Malta, RSC 2015
ISHIA BENNISON
A Mad World My Masters, RSC 2013
