Previewed: Romeo and Juliet

What made you want to direct this play?

I wanted to do it mainly because of the Cathedral venue. No one recently has been able to put on a production in the Cathedral that wasn’t about the building itself. There hasn’t been an actual play in the Cathedral for fifty or sixty years. It was an incredible opportunity to do a Shakespeare play, which I really liked, in such an incredible space. It was difficult not to go for. I was lucky enough to get the job.

What time period have you chosen to set the production in and how does it relate to the themes of the play?

We’re doing it in a more traditional Italian renaissance style just because it’s more in keeping with the venue. When you look around and think of it being done in modern clothes it doesn’t really fit in with the aesthetic of the venue. We’re going for the traditional period and not updating or modernising it any way. In terms of themes, it’s a play that’s fundamentally about sex and violence. There’s a lot of fighting, there’s a lot of crude humour. It’s about passion. It’s not a tame play. At parts it’s somewhat controversial to be done in a religious setting, but that was the environment they were in – very strict Catholic society where religion was such an important part. At the same time, the line between brawling or knifing someone on the street and having an illicit sexual relationship was a very thin one.

The play is so iconic that people already have their cultural preconceptions of it. They’ve seen many stage productions of it, they’ve seen the Zeffirelli movie, the Baz Luhrmann version. What do you think is so special about your production that should make people want to see it?

We are not trying to make it different. If anything, I’m trying to take it back to the text. This is a horrible cliché, but there’s so much baggage with ‘Romeo and Juliet’. It’s been done so many times. Everybody knows the Baz Luhrmann film and lots of people try to update it and do it in different periods, different styles. I thought about doing a production that strips all that away and shows the audience what it would’ve been like at the time it was performed in Shakespeare’s day. We are going for a more traditional look in terms of costumes. The stage and the set are within the Cathedral but there’s nothing else there. It’s a bare stage with actors on it. The very pared down and simple view of the play and the text is the most refreshing part of it. We are not trying to give it a new twist. We’re not saying ‘wouldn’t it be really cool to set it in Las Vegas’. We’re going for simplicity and tradition.

What were the biggest difficulties of staging it in the Cathedral?

We’re performing in the main knave, so we’re having the audience seated on three sides. That brings the practical issue of having to play to the audience on three sides, which not a lot of actors are used to. However, the biggest difficulty is sound. The acoustics in the Cathedral are terrible because everything you say echoes. To combat that, we are giving the cast radio mics. We’re using the cathedral speaker system to make the actors’ voices clearer and reduce the echo effect. The actors have to be careful about the enunciation and projection. In addition, it’s an impractical space insomuch as it’s really large.  When you’re looking at an actor against huge pillars they seem very small and as a result your acting style has to be cruder and bigger, otherwise meaning and emotion won’t carry. Its not an intimate space so the acting can’t be all internalised and very subtle because the audience might just not notice it.

Favourite part of the play?

The best scenes tend to be the most famous ones.  The balcony scene after Capulet’s feast, the dual between Mercutio and Tybalt and the very end, of course. As a director, you want to do those three scenes because you want to really dig into them.

John Madden’s ‘Shakespeare in Love’ or Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’?

I would have to say ‘Shakespeare in Love’. Baz Luhrmann had a great concept and made a very bold film but I don’t think it works in a lot of ways. Luhrmann is very focused on the visual style of cinema and neglects the most powerful dramatic vehicle that Shakespeare provides, which is language. I don’t think Luhrmann explores it enough and his actors don’t use it to its full extent. It’s visually an astonishing film, it’s really creative and cool, but ‘Shakespeare in Love’ is moving. It’s funny and the cast is unbelievable.

Performances:      

Sat 9th February at 19:30

Sun 10th February at 19:30

Mon 11th February at 19:30

Ticket bookings:                                                        http://www.dur.ac.uk/DST/show.php?show=1015