Shakespeare Coursework – Romeo & Juliet

I have chosen to direct Act I, Scene 1. I have chosen this because the scene has a lot of action in it, which could be easily portrayed on a stage. It is important as it shows the rivalry and hatred between the two feuding groups, it is when the Prince Escalus issues his decree which has a big effect on the latter part of the story (when Romeo is banished from Verona to Mantua for killing Tybalt) and it introduces some of the main characters: Benvolio, Tybalt, Lord and Lady Capulet, Lord and Lady Montague, Prince Escalus and Romeo.

I chose to set this scene in Donegal Road, Belfast, because when I started to try and think of two similar feuding groups to the Capulets and Montagues – groups locked in a conflict that seems to have no beginning and no foreseeable end, I thought of the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland and especially in Belfast. I then did some research into how much the different areas of Belfast are populated by Catholics and Protestants, so that I could see in which places there would most likely to be high tension between the two groups, and Donegal Road seemed to me a place where there would be the highest tension because on one side of it is an area highly populated by Catholics and on the other an area highly populated by Protestants.

I set the scene in modern times because I think it would be easier for me to relate to and therefore easier for a modern audience to relate to and understand, and because I felt that a modern setting worked well in the version of Romeo and Juliet directed by Baz Luhrman, for I could understand and relate to the setting very easily, so understood the characters and the whole play better.

I chose to use my own interpretation of the script because I felt that the traditional 16th Century language would not work in the 21st Century setting I chose because it could confuse the audience and they might not understand fully the language, although this did work in the Baz Luhrman version of the play, but I think that that was because he used film as his media, allowing him to get across more easily to an audience the meanings and consequences of the dialogue using a lot more action and filming techniques that are not possible on a stage.

I decided to change all the names of the characters because I am setting the play in the 21st Century and the original names that Shakespeare used would not be appropriate. As I have set the story in a road in Belfast, I chose to make the Montagues Protestants and the Capulets Catholics. I cast Romeo as Sean Edwards, son of Mr John and Mrs Ann Edwards (Lord and Lady Montague) because those characters fitted in to the setting. Benvolio is David McNeil who is a friend of the Edwards family. Tybalt I made the son of Mr Brendan and Mrs Mary Dillon (Lord and Lady Capulet), which is different to the original characterisation in which he is their nephew, because in today’s world it’s not so common that relations live so close together. Sampson and Gregory, the two Capulet servants, I cast as two children, Peter and Michael, as I thought that children nowadays have roughly the same status as a servant did in the 16th century. For similar reasons, I cast Abraham and Balthazar, the two Montague servants, as Brian and Kevin, two protestant children. I cast Prince Escalus of Verona as the Chief Constable of the RUC because I thought that he had approximately the same authority and power as the Prince would have had then.

In the beginning of the scene, the two catholic children are playing football in a road because this is something that is common to children of their age, and gives them a reason to be there.

When they start talking about the Protestants, and what has happened recently concerning them, this just introduces the conflict between the two groups.

Then one of the boys misses a pass with the football and turns around. This provides an opportunity for him to look around, enabling him to see the Protestants at the other end of the street. The other boy is then shocked when he realises who it is, because they did not expect them to show themselves after the recent conflicts, which the boys were being so cocky about.

When the boys and the two older youths fight, I didn’t think it would be appropriate or right in this setting for them to use swords, so they used their fists. When the adults get involved in the fight, Mr Edwards fires a gun into the air. I put this in because there are quite a lot of firearms in Belfast, especially in the areas of conflict, and it would be a reason for the police’s attention to be drawn to the fight.

When the police arrive, in the Chief Constable’s speech, rather than him threatening to kill the next person or people who disturb the peace, I chose for him to threaten to prosecute them because this is a modern punishment that would be suited to this crime.

For the rest of the scene, I kept the ideas basically the same as the original script because there is no way of updating or modifying these ideas without losing the meaning of the dialogue.

David is slow to anger and a natural peacemaker. This is shown when he says “Stop, you have no reason to fight”. When, however, Tybalt taunts him he does retaliate. He seems to be concerned about his friends, especially Sean – “Do you know what’s up with him?” and “What is making you so sad and fed up?” He is obviously very close to Sean – “You start to make me feel down”……”because I don’t like it when you are fed up”. He thinks that Sean is wasting his time on someone who he can never have “take my advice, forget her”.

Sean, in this scene, seems to be very easily depressed and this affects him greatly – “Time seems to drag when you are sad”. He has a very complex way of thinking when he says he is “out of love” which David doesn’t understand and “the only way I could ever forget he is if I forgot how to think”. He, like David, obviously does not like the fighting. “I am fed up of all this. There is always fighting”. He seems to appreciate David’s advice but it is of no use to him “You can’t help me this time”.

In contrast to David and Sean, Liam is very hotheaded and quick to anger. He is a troublemaker and a hateful person “I hate peace just as much as I hate hell, dirty papes and especially you”.

As this is the first scene of the whole play, I would like to audience to understand the strong hatred between the two groups right from the beginning of the scene. However, I would also like them to understand that there are some people who would prefer there to be peace, for example, Sean and David. I would like the audience to empathise with Sean, and feel themselves being caught up in the emotions of love and despair.

The effect I would like this scene to have on the audience is that they would have some understanding of the pointlessness of these conflicts, and why they happen – children have been brought up to know nothing else. I would like the audience to be angry at the troublemakers at the beginning of scene, like Liam, and sad and sorry for Sean at the end of the scene.