Romeo and Juliet Review
Romeo and Juliet Review
On Friday night, September 1st, we visited Edgerton Park in New Haven to view the Shakespeare play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The play was about two families in Verona, Italy who are enemies (the Montagues and the Capulets) and their constant hatred for each other. Except for the bond between the Montagues only son, Romeo, and the Capulet's daughter, Juliet. The two "star-crossed lovers" marry in secret not long after meeting each other at a feast hosted by Juliet's father in order to allow her to meet county Paris. Later, a brawl breaks out in the street, killing Romeo's friend Mercutio and Juliet's kinsman, Tybalt. This greatly affects both families, resulting in Romeo's banishment. It's also part of the reason Capulet decides to marry Juliet off to county Paris. Not wanting to do so, Juliet takes a sleeping potion that will make it appear that she was dead. When Romeo discovers she is dead, not having known Juliet's plan, he drinks poison right as she wakes up. Upon finding her husband dead, Juliet kisses him in an attempt to get the poison herself. Since that doesn't work, Juliet takes Romeo's dagger and stabs herself. When Montague and Capulet find their children and county Paris dead, they finally decide to make peace and end their feud.
To me, the biggest theme throughout was the amount of power love can hold. At one point during the play, the nurse mentions that Romeo and Juliet’s love might finally bring the two houses together. This thread is also followed when Friar Lawrence marries them in secret, believing that this may bring about a peaceful end to the family feud. Another major theme in the play is that violence and death are horrible things that should be punished. This is shown during the prince’s monologue after the fight in scene one and again after the death of Tybalt and Mercutio. One final theme in the play is how inevitable fate is. When Romeo cries out, “Then I defy you stars,” after he finds out aboutJuliet’s death shows that his love for Juliet is against what fate wishes. He kills himself in order to be with her in death, but even that backfires because Juliet wasn't truly dead when Romeo committed suicide.
The directors made several decisions in regards to staging for The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. One of which is the costume colors. I noticed that the Montagues wore warmer tones, while the Capulets costumes contained cooler tones. I believe this was done to not only help the audience distinguish between the two families, but also to show that they were rivals, with almost no similarities. Another decision that the production made was with music. I believe that they chose more recent songs in order to create a sense of appeal to the audience, since older dance music isn't as interesting to listen to. The decision also create more room for the choreographer to be more creative with routines, since more recent songs don't have a specific way of dancing to them. One more decision that the production made was to make the set very multi-faceted. They were able to smoothly transition from the street, to Juliet’s home, to the final resting place of Romeo and Juliet by changing small details in the scene, as well as the lighting. Finally, the production also made decisions with the lighting. During a more somber scene, the lights tended to be dimmer or the color of the light would be one typically associated with sadness. Meanwhile, during a scene involving merriment, such as the dancescene, the lights had brighter tones.
The production also used color in order to show that Romeo and Juliet were the most important characters. They did so by making their costumes different shades from that of their families, as well as the fact that they are the only characters who change their hairstyle and outfit throughout the show. Another character aspect is how the production made it seem as though the families were complete opposites by using colors on separate ends of the color wheel. Romeo and county Paris are depicted as opposites based on how highly Juliet’s father spoke of Paris, while demeaning Romeo’s family.
In my opinion, the best actor was the one who played the nurse. She had a good stage voice, which carried very well. She also had a strong comedic front, as some of her lines made the audience laugh on several occasions. I enjoyed how the nurse would often talk about certain situations with very animated facial expressions and movements. An example of when the nurse made the audience laugh was when she was returning from delivering Juliet’s message to Romeo. She was complaining about how old she was, and how her back ached.
Finally, I found the play highly amusing. The language wasn't too difficult to understand, and I liked how the production added some modern elements with the music. I learned a lot about how to portray sadness. I noticed that the actors seemed to overact when it came to scenes that involved crying, which makes sense to me because they had to sell their grief. I also learned about how some scenes come together because we arrived early and witnessed how a fighting scene plays out. One thing that I disliked about the play is that at times the actors spoke so quickly that it was difficult to make out their words. This taught me that you need to make sure you take the time to enunciate and take things slower than necessary so that the audience is able to register the words coming out of your mouth. Overall, I really enjoyed that play and learned from it as well.
On Friday night, September 1st, we visited Edgerton Park in New Haven to view the Shakespeare play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The play was about two families in Verona, Italy who are enemies (the Montagues and the Capulets) and their constant hatred for each other. Except for the bond between the Montagues only son, Romeo, and the Capulet's daughter, Juliet. The two "star-crossed lovers" marry in secret not long after meeting each other at a feast hosted by Juliet's father in order to allow her to meet county Paris. Later, a brawl breaks out in the street, killing Romeo's friend Mercutio and Juliet's kinsman, Tybalt. This greatly affects both families, resulting in Romeo's banishment. It's also part of the reason Capulet decides to marry Juliet off to county Paris. Not wanting to do so, Juliet takes a sleeping potion that will make it appear that she was dead. When Romeo discovers she is dead, not having known Juliet's plan, he drinks poison right as she wakes up. Upon finding her husband dead, Juliet kisses him in an attempt to get the poison herself. Since that doesn't work, Juliet takes Romeo's dagger and stabs herself. When Montague and Capulet find their children and county Paris dead, they finally decide to make peace and end their feud.
To me, the biggest theme throughout was the amount of power love can hold. At one point during the play, the nurse mentions that Romeo and Juliet’s love might finally bring the two houses together. This thread is also followed when Friar Lawrence marries them in secret, believing that this may bring about a peaceful end to the family feud. Another major theme in the play is that violence and death are horrible things that should be punished. This is shown during the prince’s monologue after the fight in scene one and again after the death of Tybalt and Mercutio. One final theme in the play is how inevitable fate is. When Romeo cries out, “Then I defy you stars,” after he finds out aboutJuliet’s death shows that his love for Juliet is against what fate wishes. He kills himself in order to be with her in death, but even that backfires because Juliet wasn't truly dead when Romeo committed suicide.
The directors made several decisions in regards to staging for The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. One of which is the costume colors. I noticed that the Montagues wore warmer tones, while the Capulets costumes contained cooler tones. I believe this was done to not only help the audience distinguish between the two families, but also to show that they were rivals, with almost no similarities. Another decision that the production made was with music. I believe that they chose more recent songs in order to create a sense of appeal to the audience, since older dance music isn't as interesting to listen to. The decision also create more room for the choreographer to be more creative with routines, since more recent songs don't have a specific way of dancing to them. One more decision that the production made was to make the set very multi-faceted. They were able to smoothly transition from the street, to Juliet’s home, to the final resting place of Romeo and Juliet by changing small details in the scene, as well as the lighting. Finally, the production also made decisions with the lighting. During a more somber scene, the lights tended to be dimmer or the color of the light would be one typically associated with sadness. Meanwhile, during a scene involving merriment, such as the dancescene, the lights had brighter tones.
The production also used color in order to show that Romeo and Juliet were the most important characters. They did so by making their costumes different shades from that of their families, as well as the fact that they are the only characters who change their hairstyle and outfit throughout the show. Another character aspect is how the production made it seem as though the families were complete opposites by using colors on separate ends of the color wheel. Romeo and county Paris are depicted as opposites based on how highly Juliet’s father spoke of Paris, while demeaning Romeo’s family.
In my opinion, the best actor was the one who played the nurse. She had a good stage voice, which carried very well. She also had a strong comedic front, as some of her lines made the audience laugh on several occasions. I enjoyed how the nurse would often talk about certain situations with very animated facial expressions and movements. An example of when the nurse made the audience laugh was when she was returning from delivering Juliet’s message to Romeo. She was complaining about how old she was, and how her back ached.
Finally, I found the play highly amusing. The language wasn't too difficult to understand, and I liked how the production added some modern elements with the music. I learned a lot about how to portray sadness. I noticed that the actors seemed to overact when it came to scenes that involved crying, which makes sense to me because they had to sell their grief. I also learned about how some scenes come together because we arrived early and witnessed how a fighting scene plays out. One thing that I disliked about the play is that at times the actors spoke so quickly that it was difficult to make out their words. This taught me that you need to make sure you take the time to enunciate and take things slower than necessary so that the audience is able to register the words coming out of your mouth. Overall, I really enjoyed that play and learned from it as well.
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