Romeo and Juliet - Live Theatre Evaluation

On the 30th September 2015 I saw Jonathan Humphçreys production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield which is a thrust stage.
Romeo and Juliet resonates with contemporary audiences as it addresses issues of love and death. Humphreys’ realised the potential of creating something that modern audiences could relate to by setting it in post-Soviet Balkan states during this time there was a period of change in which the old ways were thrown out, linking to the old ways of the feuding families and the new romance.
The first relationship is between the Montagues and the Capulets. Humphreys thought that the tense relationship and feud between the families was pivotal in the play and therefore highlighted it throughout his production. Such as, when Romeo kills Tybalt. In order to show Romeo’s anger, Fox has a torte posture with erratic gestures, bulging tendons and aggressive facial expressions with bulging eyes and gritted teeth. He uses a high pitch and louder volume to emphasise his fury. Fox’s portrayal successfully communicated his hatred and anger. This made Romeo’s unthinkable actions more believable.

The second relationship is between Romeo and Juliet. The tense relationship between the two families makes it difficult for two to be together. I think that both Fox and Clark successfully portray the young couple’s passionate love and their desire to stay together. A key scene to analyse their relationship is in the balcony scene in which Juliet sits on a bleak, metal balcony and converses with Romeo. The beautiful scenario that is the couple in love combined with the ugly balcony suggests that something beautiful is being mixed in with something ugly. This insinuates that such a wonderful thing was never meant to happen in such a bleak and dangerous world. As Juliet sits on the balcony, Romeo sits among the audience and talks to them. By doing this, Fox humanises his character and makes his predicaments and love for Juliet more believable. Also, Fox’s physical distance from Clark highlights the difficulties and barriers that are standing in their way. The proxemics combined with the tone and pitch of their voice helped emphasise their desperation and longing to be together despite their waring families. When Romeo and Juliet are bidding farewell to each other, Humphreys uses comedy to help suggest that they love each other so much; they don’t want to leave each other’s side. Fox attempts to leave the stage on many occasions but he can’t bring himself to do it. His slightly arrogant personality and jovial facial expressions and movements aid the humour. This humanises his character making us believe his longing to spend as much time as possible with Juliet.

One of my favourite characters was Rachel Lumberg’s portrayal of the Nurse. Her performance was warm, caring and comedic. The Nurse clearly cares greatly for Juliet’s well-being. Her soft tone of voice and gentle gestures and movements emphasised her caring personality and made her portrayal more believable and realistic. Her Yorkshire accent also sympathised with the audience because of the Crucible’s location making her character recognisable and warming. Lumberg also showed contrast in her performance as her character changes as the events of the play occurred. For example, in contrast to her soft and warm tone, when she was summoning Peter she used a harsh and shrill tone. This highlighted her domineering personality adding to the comedy. Another moment to highlight Lumberg’s comedic excellence was in the scene when the Nurse couldn’t stop laughing. Her speech was impeded and broken up, and eventually she wet herself. This exaggeration added comedy to the scene and overall Lumberg’s performance gave light relief to a dark play. Even towards the end of the play when the Nurse encountered Juliet dead, her character was still loud and vocal and she had exaggerated gestures and facial expressions. However, her performance was not comedic but harrowing. Lumberg’s performance was consistent throughout and yet still showed great contrast between the beginning and the end.
One of my favourite scenes of the play was the nightclub scene in which Romeo meets Juliet for the first time. Humphreys was inspired by cheap, tacky discos from the 80’s.
The music and sound effects were loud, bright LED’s shone into the audience which immersed us into the scene. Stylised and simplistic movements allowed the audience to focus on the interaction between Romeo and Juliet; they also formed a tight circle which clearly showed Paris searching for Juliet. The rigid movements perhaps suggested that in that society everyone did the same thing and as they were told, apart from Romeo and Juliet. Humphreys suggests this as Fox and Clark do not do the same movements as everyone else. Despite the jovial atmosphere in this stylised scene, the masks also give the scene a macabre atmosphere. This foreshadowed later events that would occur because of that night.
Because of the thrust staging, we were sitting so close to the action and because of the three sides of the stage it felt like the action was all around us. This immersed us into the action and made everything more believable. The minimalistic set with the corrugated iron backboard and the chip wood flooring helped to emphasise the bleak and harsh world that Humphreys was trying to suggest.
The costume also reflected poverty and a bleak world. Suggesting that it didn’t matter what you wore or where you were from, love would conquer all.
Overall I really enjoyed Humphrey’s retelling of this traditional classic. The use of mediums and dramatic techniques kept the performance fresh, unique and quirky. Shakespeare’s historic play was given a breath of fresh air in this youthful and refreshing new interpretation.