May 8, 2007
Here’s the score; theatre on the lawns of Brasenose New Quad, with Pimms in the interval; the setting sun giving the lighting for Shakespeare’s most renowned work; Romeo & Juliet. Damn, that sounds like a fine evening out! But hold your horses Jeeves! Not so fast! If we inflate our expectations to the supermassive level of giants, the reality of the occasion may bring us down to earth like a lead zeppelin. And we wouldn’t want that.
Just as well really. Not the fault of the players – who performed marvellously – but the weather. It was cold. Very cold. I was wrapped up in a jacket and scarf as well. My heart goes out to the poor actors who were forced to wear t-shirts and bare feet on the cold quad stone. Brrr. That aside it was a brilliant production with only a couple of hiccoughs in need of stifling. Starting 8 minutes late (with actors sorting out their swordfights and crew desperately trying to light artistic candles as I took my seat), the players threw their backs in, and compensated for the cold weather by ignoring it like professionals. Brilliant performances came from both the Nurse – who managed to bring reality and her character into wonderful collision – and Mercutio – whose short part was acted enthusiastically nonetheless. The changing of the scenery was perhaps a little too wilful. The main piece (excluding the quad itself) was a set of three hinged panels which were moved around between every single scene with little difference to my enjoyment of the play except wasting time and trapping the crew’s fingers.
Billy Kember – the director – has seen fit to add in a scene that Shakespeare left out; the marriage itself. It was an interesting scene, wordless and over too quickly, but effective nonetheless. Still, one might have expected the priest to be present - perhaps this is something to be amended in future versions.
The start of the second half was the herald to yet more directorial intervention. This time it was the splicing together of two scenes; one featuring the Nurse and Juliet, the other featuring Romeo and the Priest. This was perhaps less effective, the cast getting their complex cues mixed and one pair of actors being forced to freeze (literally) whilst the others played their scene. It was an interesting idea, but less of a success. That aside, the play was very well put together (especially for a student group) and brilliantly acted. I look forward to seeing more from this group.
Just as well really. Not the fault of the players – who performed marvellously – but the weather. It was cold. Very cold. I was wrapped up in a jacket and scarf as well. My heart goes out to the poor actors who were forced to wear t-shirts and bare feet on the cold quad stone. Brrr. That aside it was a brilliant production with only a couple of hiccoughs in need of stifling. Starting 8 minutes late (with actors sorting out their swordfights and crew desperately trying to light artistic candles as I took my seat), the players threw their backs in, and compensated for the cold weather by ignoring it like professionals. Brilliant performances came from both the Nurse – who managed to bring reality and her character into wonderful collision – and Mercutio – whose short part was acted enthusiastically nonetheless. The changing of the scenery was perhaps a little too wilful. The main piece (excluding the quad itself) was a set of three hinged panels which were moved around between every single scene with little difference to my enjoyment of the play except wasting time and trapping the crew’s fingers.
Billy Kember – the director – has seen fit to add in a scene that Shakespeare left out; the marriage itself. It was an interesting scene, wordless and over too quickly, but effective nonetheless. Still, one might have expected the priest to be present - perhaps this is something to be amended in future versions.
The start of the second half was the herald to yet more directorial intervention. This time it was the splicing together of two scenes; one featuring the Nurse and Juliet, the other featuring Romeo and the Priest. This was perhaps less effective, the cast getting their complex cues mixed and one pair of actors being forced to freeze (literally) whilst the others played their scene. It was an interesting idea, but less of a success. That aside, the play was very well put together (especially for a student group) and brilliantly acted. I look forward to seeing more from this group.