Romeo and Juliet
The Lord Chamberlain's Men, Ickworth House, Sunday July 29
Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare for so many. The balcony scene, the rose by any other name, the blighted romance come to mind even if you only get as far as the film. But the play isn't just about the teens meeting and dying in forty eight hours, more the gulf of understanding yawning between youth and age.
The self-absorbed Montague and Capulet parents have no idea what their children feel and do – no wonder Romeo and Juliet so quickly opt for drugs and knives as an escape.
The all-male Lord Chamberlain's Men brought their athletic production to Ickworth on an ingenious collapsible stage, much as their Elizabethan namesakes would have done. Such commendable economy of props and trappings emphasises the words – the auditory imagination then has every chance to fly with the nuances of language.
Lift-off did have to wait while the players bounced through the first half of the play. Dramatic pauses were too few, and there were some missed opportunities to develop the softer, more quietly intimate tones of the poetry.
David Eaton's Juliet held a sensitive balance of gaucheness, awkwardness with her body and total lack of experience. His girl-child pushed into instant womanhood, wobbling between hysterical excitement, fear and the need to be loved was credible.
When Bruce Godfree's Romeo had stopped shouting and allowed the moods in the language to take over, he showed potential as the headstrong lad who's gone too far. Morgan Brind played both Nurse and Montague – the former role so crucial to the youth v. age theme.
Nurse, the only adult to offer affection to Juliet, lets her down. Her sexual innuendo, lost on the trusting Juliet, shows her need to be liked by the young, but her age catches up with her. The old servant lines up with the adults to punish the girl whom she herself had pushed into an unsuitable liaison.
Parents, what do you really know about your kids and the people you employ to look after them? This play does have some uncomfortable modern echoes.
This was, indeed, a special two hours of stage traffic in Ickworth's extensive gardens.
Mary Dunk.
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Weather for Sudbury
Saturday 04 February 2012
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Cloudy
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