Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare

seen at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on 7 July  2017

Daniel Kramer directs Edward Hogg as Romeo and Kirsty Bushell as Juliet in this controversial production designed by Soutra Gilmour, set in an indeterminately modern environment - guns and loud music, but not much sign of other technology - with everyone in extreme white clown make-up except for Paris and Friar Lawrence who have gold faces.

The critics panned the production as incoherent and unnecessarily loud and vulgar. It is certainly surprising to discover Lord Capulet dressed as a (black) alligator and leading a raucous rendition of the Village People's YMCA as he hosts his party. It is more than a bit weird that the major deaths occur by means of pistol shots, but that the wielder of the pistol continues to talk about swords, rapiers, vials of poison, or whatever, and then merely utters the word 'Bang' to indicate that the weapon has been fired. Towards the end of the play, Paris is not dispatched, but Romeo shoots Juliet's parents and his own parents.

On occasion, some scenes are played simultaneously. Most notably the scene in which the Nurse (Blythe Duff, very Scottish) informs the distraught Juliet of Romeo's banishment is superimposed on the scene in which Friar Lawrence (Harish Patel, behaving more like a Hindu mystic than a Catholic friar) advises the distraught Romeo to depart for Mantua. Romeo and Juliet are thus kneeling on the same bed although they are oblivious of one another, being in entirely different spaces.

I'm very confused about all this. I did not actually enjoy watching the play while I was there. I find it a great pity that all the actors were miked, as I think this reduces the subtlety of the human voice, and it curiously leads to the impression that everyone is shouting rather than speaking. The style of the show was almost burlesque, and so in that sense a bald style of delivery can be expected, but I remain unconvinced that this cast had mastered the techniques required for electronic enhancement of the voice. Previous productions at the Globe have deliberately avoided the use of sound systems, which I personally find preferable, even taking into account the occasional annoyance of helicopters overhead.

I found myself irritated by the exaggerated emotions which were encouraged by the rather clownish visual style of the production. Benvolio and Mercutio naturally emphasised the bawdiness of the young men (though Mercutio was played by a woman), but Lord Capulet threw a tantrum while insisting on the marriage with Paris. His behaviour is of course self-centred and unfeeling, but here it struck me as for the most part self-indulgent, and the sense of real threat towards Juliet - or even towards Lady Capulet - was thus oddly diminished.

As for the young couple: Romeo was the moody (generally rather self-pitying) adolescent, his white makeup and black clothing particularly emphasising this aspect of his character, while Juliet was more mercurial, but not really mistress of the situation either. This was expressed by a persistent nervous giggle which brought her up short in the middle of many thoughts, as if she were trying on an idea then laughing at herself in disbelief at the audacity of it. Cumulatively this became increasingly irritating, especially when combined with extreme ranges of tone from whisper to teenage tantrum (a trait learned from her father perhaps?); and of course this played havoc with the verse. But verse-speaking was given short shrift in this production; the great pilgrim sonnet sequence only just survived the manic shenanigans of the Capulet party.

Several things prevent me from dismissing this production out of hand, even though many of the points I have made are fairly detrimental. For example,

- I have just seen the new opera Hamlet from Glyndebourne (see the review in the 'Nicholas at the Opera' blog). This also used pale make-up (though not nearly so exaggerated), and also made extremely effective use of playing two and even three scenes simultaneously. I like it there - though I suspect that operatic conventions encourage the idea that characters display their thoughts to the audience without necessarily involving the other characters on stage.

- I have just seen the new play Anatomy of a Suicide when for most of the time three separate narratives from three separate generations were being played out simultaneously on the stage (see the review from 29 June), and this was extremely stimulating and by and large successful

- I spoke with one of the Globe stewards by chance at the Almeida theatre a couple of days before seeing this play, and she said she had seen it six or seven times, disliked it at first, but had come to be more appreciative on subsequent viewings.

- I spoke with two others in the audience while on my train journey home, and they had thoroughly enjoyed it. They were not worried by the electronic enhancement of the voices, and not worried by the total lack of subtlety (though they still claimed to find nuances in the actors' voices) nor by the over-the-top emotionalism. They thought the use of the 'Bang' gun highlighted the idea that violence is the poison in all the young lives. They also remarked that there were quite a number of school parties in the audience and they were all attentive and very enthusiastic in their applause at the end. One of them pointed out that it is extremely difficult to engage youngsters in Shakespeare (she has taught the play) and she thought this production had spoken to their outlook, with its intense experiences and immediate almost thoughtless reaction to events. And I must admit I had noticed a group of schoolboys sitting in comparatively poor seats (right over to one side, therefore having a very skewed view of the action) and it is quite true that they were attentive throughout.

So - an odd experience. I think there is some special pleading in the director's ideas about reflecting the modern style of 'multi-tasking' in the 'layering' of scenes; it is perilously close to dumbing down. I think that on balance too much of the play's power has been ignored or sacrificed to create relevance - and also, I fear, in response to the criticism of Emma Rice, the soon-to-be ex artistic director of the Globe, whose contract has been terminated early because the board felt she was subverting the traditions and purposes of the space.