The World of Arts:

Surprise... and Romeo was...

Gwen HERAT at the Globe, London

The Globe Theatre with its centuries old balconies, benches and the sky as the roof

Black; Was I surprised? you bet I was .... a coffee skinned Romeo. Took sometime to sink in the idea. The dapper handsome Adetomiwa Edun glove-fitted the role of the tragic lover and nothing mattered when he stepped on boards. And I thought the director missed a point. How come when Montague and Lady Montague were White, Romeo was not so white. Never mind. He was gorgeous and I could not take my eyes off him nor his tender husky voice that vibrated Shakespeare dialogue. As it is the GLOBE opens to the sky and I sweated out in the morning, envying those who sat on the ancient benches the GLOBE maintain fiercely. The scene opened with Rosalined teased by Romeo for a second or so and Benvolio enters for a chatty dialogue session, and the story moves only in major parts though I wished the whole tragedy was enacted. A slight drizzle fell as the sun moved over.

Director Dominic Dromoole spiced the play from the beginning emphasising the adolence of Vienna. The play stimulates the experience of adolescence. After all Juliet would have been fourteen on Lammas Day and Romeo a teenager. The intense and changing passions often which generate defiance against two generations, was the theme that the director highlighted. Driven forward by the incomprehension of the older generation for the young is what Shakespeare had in mind for Romeo and Juliet. Composer, Nigel Hess provided passionate scores for each scene, retaining the essence of youth in harmony. This was heard each time Romeo met Juliet and he was able not to distract the audience away from the young lovers.

The rendering of dialogue came easy to Edun as he overshadowed the petit Juliet played by Ellie Kendrik. She fell far below in her histrionic as against the awesome passionate Edun.

She had the essence of youth, roses of a teenager but beyond that Kendrik failed. Juliet is a complexed character, woman nor girl and she has to bring forth its complexities, someone who had only her nurse to confide in. The Capulets kept distance of their daughter which made the character more difficult to enact. A more mature actress could have risen to Edun's Romeo.

After the first act, the play makes adjustments for the Capulets to emerge and associate with Juliet's presence.

Capulet has only one thing in this mind, to engage his daughter's marriage. His interference cause irony and suspense in the third act due to his negotiations with Paris while Juliet, secretly, consummates her marriage with Romeo.

The play is fast moving but each and everyone in the audience, I am sure, is able to grasp the story with its missing scenes because I bet there is no one single person who would not have read or studied Romeo and Juliet, at least among today's audience.

In the third scene which starts with Lady Capulet who occupies the long scene that result in the family episode which represents the obscuracy the lovers face. A pleading Juliet is overlooked.

Romeo - Adetomiva : Juliet - Ellie Kandrix

The tragedy stimulates the experience of adolescence, the intense and changing passion which often generate defiance against the adult world. For example, such a relationship can be seen between Romeo and the Friar that reveal Romeo's inconstancy.

Here the dialogue is very unique to the play. It reveals the adolescence intensity and impatience against the adult perplexity.

Friar Lawrence joke about Romeo's passions, recalling even Rosalind's. Romeo's tears, sighs and groans over changing objects of love, eventually set the scene to tragic deaths.

Friar Lawrence muses over Juliet's suicidal inclinations, the effect it would have on family feuds.

Determine to unite the desperate couple, Friar Lawrence comes up with an idea that spell tragedy at the end. Over the dead bodies of their children, the Capulets and the Montagues unite. What for? is my question.

There was a hush feeling when the curtains dropped. Next, a thunderous ovation as Romeo and Juliet with the rest of the cast appeared. It was one of my most memorable days. A day at Shakespeare's GLOBE.

Credits:

Romeo - Adetomiva Edun

Juliet - Ellie Kendrik

Benvolio - Kack Farthing

Mercutio - Phillip Cumbus

Montage - Michael'O'hagen

Lady - Montague

Lady Capulet - Miranda Foster

Paris - Tom Stuart

Tybalt - Ukweli Roach

Friar Lawrence - Rawiri Paratene

Prince - Andrew Vincent

Nurse - Penny Layden

Director - Dominic Dreamgoole

Composer - Nigel Hess

Music Director - William Lyons

Choreographer - Sidn Williams

Costume - Laura Hunt

Production - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

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