Romeo and Juliet is currently running at the Broadway Studio in Catford. Probably not the best production I have ever seen but certainly not the worst and in fact there are some sweet performances, including the ones I have mentioned in my official review. What did occur to me as I sat listening to the fate of the two star-cross'd lovers unfold, is how I am much less patient with them than usual.
R & J do behave like a couple of spoiled brats and had they simply spoken the truth in the first place there might have been hell to pay from the parents, but neither would have died. Sean suggested and he is probably correct, that I am looking at the story with contemporary eyes and layering onto the story a distinctly modern perspective. This may well be the case but this attitude was no doubt compounded by the relentlessly bleak design accompanied by contemporary costume.
I don't have a problem placing Shakespeare's plays in a modern setting but it has to serve the theme and text. What you get in this production is a bunch of well spoken young lads, knifing each other to verse. Catford's Romeo and Juliet is neither theatrical nor realistic and sitting on the fence in this way is a sign of timorous hands at the helm.
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