Romeo and Juliet at The Globe
Romeo, Romeo for where art thou Romeo? Is a great question to ask. But i’d like to rephrase it as “romance, romance, for where art the bloody love story of this damned so called romance”? There are many things about Romeo and Juliet that I would like to discuss, ive already touched on a few when I wrote my book review of the play which you can read here. But it is not the text we’re here to talk about, but the damn play itself. The play in performance has a much different texture to it. Especially in these covid -19 - reopening- but- slightly-confused- times. As much as I enjoyed finally going back to the theatre, and The Globe at that! I was expecting a little more I must say.
The play was one of those mythical ‘socially distanced’ plays and to be frank I’m not sure it really worked well. Okay so there are moments when you could get away with it, like at the Capulet’s Party and the the scene where Lady Capulet tries to give Juliet the ‘talk’ about marriage etc. because then it was funny, it added to the drama and the awkwardness of Lady Capulet not really knowing her own daughter. But then we have the scenes between Juliet and Romeo, okay the balcony scene, completely get the whole socially distanced thing. But the scenes where they fall in love, get married, die. I found the romance couldn’t stand the distance of 2 meters apart. And that is a massive shame. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was down to the acting completely. I would argue its because there is an intensity in Romeo and Juliet, their characters and their willingness to end it all for each other. It just doesn’t work if you make the actors proclaim their love from 2 meters away. The play has a romantic claustrophobia to it. “Oh happy dagger” “my only love born from my only hate” the intensity of these lines needs heat to have that kinetic youthful energy. There were attempts to get that energy off the ground, and that was in the Capulet Ball scene. But the problem was it that they had this sound system and very loud music, trying to say your lines over a horrendous sound system was rather off putting and I had no idea what was being said as well, so not the best. But the effect was fun!
Okay, but that’s not to say the acting was crap. It wasn’t. We had some great people in it. The main draw was, of course, Alfred Enoch who plays Romeo. He played Dean Thomas in Harry Potter FYI. He was great, played the love struck fool magnificently. The chemistry between him and the other actors was obvious, particularly with Friar Lawrence and in the spectacular fight scenes with Tybalt and Mercutio. Yeah. That climactic scene where shit hits the fan. There was only one thing I didn’t really buy, and that was the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. I get it. They’re sad. But the build up, Romeo forcing down poison- I believed. The death was a little too drawn out. Juliets death was a bit much. I get it, it takes nerve to kill yourself- with a gun no less. But there was a bang… and not much else. It was a little underwhelming. I really have to take my hat off to the man who played Mercutio. Wow. What a performance. Despite the socially distanced shenanigans going on. The anger, the fury and the hatred of the capulets resounded from him in waves.
Some other interesting points about this performance just to wrap up. The director had a habit of dropping some rather insightful and unsettling truth bombs which the actors all read out just at the beginnings of scenes such as “The rational part of the brain does not mature until the age of 25”. Personally, this would explain a few things. It also referred to things like suicide and statistics of youth suicide. It was a fresh look at the play and I highly commend that. It adds another dimension to the play that I don’t think has been explored before.
The play is definitely worth seeing, its a great night out. Especially now, the Southbank, London is alive! Lockdown is ending after all. But personally I was a little bit disappointed that my cynicism wasn’t quashed by the romance on the stage because the intensity doesn’t translate across 6 feet unfortunately.