Cover not available

In:Romeo and Juliet in European Culture
Edited by Juan F. Cerdá, Dirk Delabastita and Keith Gregor
[Shakespeare in European Culture 1] 2017
► pp. 227–246

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 11
Romeo and Juliet in British culture

In fresh performance by The Royal Shakespeare Company

 | Bucknell University
Published online: 14 December 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sec.1.12fis
Abstract
Between 1947 and 2000, the Royal Shakespeare Company alone staged fifteen productions of Romeo and Juliet. To date (2015), three more mises en scène at the RSC can be counted: Nancy Meckler’s (2006), Neil Bartlett’s (2008), Rupert Goold’s (2010). Goold’s staging was touted by Michael Billington “as exciting a revival since Zeffirelli stunned us with his verismo in 1960.” Russell Jackson, in examining aspects of Romeo and Juliet across a half-century of RSC productions, organises his commentary into the following sections: “Fair Verona,” “Two Households,” “Ghostly Sire, Gallant Spirit,” “Star-Crossed Lovers,” “Towards Catastrophe.” An attempt will be made to (re)read Goold’s production in parallel fashion, highlighting points of contact mostly with other RSC stagings of the play.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • “Fair Verona”
  • “Two households”
    • Capulet
    • Capulet’s wife
    • The Nurse
  • “Ghostly sire, gallant spirit”
    • Friar Laurence
    • Mercutio
  • “Star-cross’d lovers”
    • Meeting: Capulet’s feast
    • At Juliet’s window
    • Marriage and separation
  • “Towards catastrophe”
    • In Juliet’s bedroom
    • In Mantua
    • In the Capulets’ monument
  • Notes
  • References
References (29)
References
Bate, Jonathan, and Eric Rasmussen, eds. 2009. Romeo and Juliet. Introduction by Jonathan Bate. The RSC Shakespeare. New York: The Modern Library.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Billington, Michael. 2006. “ Romeo and Juliet .” The Guardian [London], April 19, 36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Sexy, Dark and Genuinely Tragic: Goold’s Revival Is a Triumph.” The Guardian [London], March 20, 38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brockbank, Philip. 1991. “Towards a Mobile Text.” In The Theory and Practice of Text-Editing: Essays in Honour of James T. Boulton, edited by Ian Small and Marcus Walsh, 90–106. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brook, Peter. (1948) 1967. “Style in Shakespearean Production.” In The Modern Theatre: Readings and Documents, edited by Daniel Seltzer, 248–256. Boston: Little, Brown. Originally published in Orpheus 1 (1948).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clapp, Susannah. 2010. “ Romeo and Juliet .” Observer [London], March 21, 36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coveney, Michael. 2010. “Smoke, Fire and Street Fights.” Independent [London], March 24. In Theatre Record (12–25 March 2010): 312.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duffy, Eamon. 2010. “Blaze a Little More of This Holy Hell.” Program Notes, Romeo and Juliet, dir. Rupert Goold, RSC.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischer, Susan L. 2008. “Aspectual, Performative, and ‘Foreign’ Lope / Shakespeare: Staging Capulets & Montagues and Peribáñez in English and Romeo + Juliet in ‘Sicilian.’” In The Comedia in English, edited by Susan Paun de García and Donald Larson, 214–228. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Tamesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017. “Romeo and Juliet and Ekphrastic Criticism in Practice: A Verbal (Mis)representation of the Visual?” Cahiers Élisabéthains 94 (1): 107–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garber, Marjorie. 2004. Shakespeare After All. New York: Anchor/Random House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hazlitt, William. 1845. Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays. New York: Wiley and Putnam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hitchings, Henry. 2010. “ Romeo and Juliet .” Evening Standard [London], March 19. In Theatre Record (12–25 March 2010): 311.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holding, Peter. 1992. Text and Performance: “Romeo and Juliet.” Houndmills: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackson, Russell. 2003. Romeo and Juliet. The Arden Shakespeare, Shakespeare at Stratford. London: Thomson Learning.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kahn, Coppélia. 1977–1978. “Coming of Age in Verona.” Modern Language Studies 8 (1): 5–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Letts, Quentin. 2006. “ Romeo and Juliet .” Daily Mail [London], April 21: 58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levenson, Jill L., ed. 2000. Romeo and Juliet. The Oxford Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loehlin, James N., ed. 2002. Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare in Production. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marmion, Patrick. 2010. “ Romeo and Juliet .” Daily Mail [London], March 26. In Theatre Record (12–25 March 2010): 313.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nightingale, Benedict. 2010. “Dial 999, There’s a Double Death in Downtown Verona.” The Times [London], March 20, 38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peter, John. 2010. “ Romeo and Juliet .” Sunday Times. [London], March 28. Theatre Record (12–25 March 2010): 313.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smallwood, Robert. 2003. “General Editor’s Preface.” In Jackson. 2003, xii–xiii.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sokol, B. J. 2011. “Review of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (directed by Rupert Goold for the Royal Shakespeare Company) at the Roundhouse, London, 4 December 2010.” Shakespeare 7 (2): 208–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer, Charles. 2010. “Timeless Take on First Love.” Daily Telegraph [London], March 22, 31.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tynan, Kenneth. 1960. “Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet .” Observer [London], October 10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1967. Tynan Right & Left: Films, People, Places and Events as Seen by Kenneth Tynan. London: Atheneum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tennant, David. 2003. “Romeo.” In Players of Shakespeare 5, edited by Robert Smallwood, 113–130. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wells, Stanley. 1996. “The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet .” Shakespeare Survey 49: 1–14.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue