Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. At Texas State University, it was directed by Kathleen McDowell. I viewed this show Friday, February 7th. This show goes through the emotional episodes of Romeo and Juliet as their forbidden love pulls them closer to each other. They are torn between following family tradition or going after who they love most.

In the city of Verona, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet met at a party. They instantly fell in love, however, their family quarrels forbade them from having romantic feelings for each other. They try everything to be together from sneaking out to involving the priest. Juliet’s cousin, Tibult, challenges Mercutio and Benvolio to a fight. Tibult ends up killing Mercutio which enrages Romeo. Romeo kills Tibult and is being banished from Verona. Meanwhile, Juliet is being forced to marry Count Paris and to be with him for the rest of her life. She threatens to end her life if Father Lawrence does not help her in her quest to be with Romeo. He gives her an elixir that will put her in a deep sleep for 2 days. Romeo was unable to receive the message that Juliet was not dead and in response, he drank poison. When Juliet finds out, she pulls out a dagger and stabs herself to be with Romeo. The families were heart broken by both of their young children committing suicide for their forbidden love.

The actors portrayed the different worlds they lived in very well. The Montague’s were more dark and mysterious with how they were around each other and the Capulets were more proper and falsificated. The actors had very great physicality with the stage combat that was implemented with the fight scenes. They were able to portray themselves getting killed with extreme realism. They also used spatial awareness to indicate how well or related they were to another person. For example, if they were far away from someone, they didn’t like or know them that well and if they were close to someone, they knew or liked them extremely well.

The design used in this show was amazing. The Montague’s wore very dark clothing and makeup to show that they were different from the rest. The Capulets wore solid, soft, bright colors to show a social status amongst the rest. The spotlight they had on Romeo and Juliet at the last scene when they killed themselves was outstanding. The spotlight slowly faded from everyone else to just onto them. It stayed on them for about 10 seconds before it slowly faded away to blackout. The lighting was used to convey the tragic events that were happening around them.

Overall I really loved the show. The set was a very basic layout of just marble like platforms that moved the actors from one scene to another. The actors made that show their own with the little set props and pieces they were given. The show showed Romeo and Juliet in an entirely new design aspect that I had never seen before. The different costumes and platforms made it so that it was an entirely new story even though Romeo and Juliet has been told for centuries.