Romeo and Juliet (2021)

I liked the conceit of this TV movie better than I liked the execution. It comes from National Theatre Live, when the theatres were closed earlier in the pandemic. The cast comes together in an empty theatre—onstage, backstage, in the rehearsal room, and so on—to bring the classic Shakespeare tragedy to life.

Set against the backdrop of their warring Verona families, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love. Their infatuation with each other overrides any concerns about what will happen if their families find out, and they seek to build a life together. But violence is everywhere, and their love can’t shelter them from it. As circumstances conspire to separate them, Romeo and Juliet make plans to be together if it’s the last thing they do.

I’ll admit, I’m picky about Romeo and Juliet. I really like the play, but I have a harder time with productions and adaptations that don’t capture what I love about it. Namely, 1) it’s a tragedy, but it also has a lot of humor. And 2) Romeo and Juliet are dumb, impulsive kids who destroy their lives over an infatuation. When a production paints it as “a love story for the ages,” I can’t connect with it as well. Maybe that’s not fair of me, but it’s how I relate to the play.

And to an extent, this production plays it a little too straight for me. All the actors are turning in good performances—special shoutout to Shubham Saraf as Benvolio and David Judge as Tybalt—but the way the production interprets the story makes me feel kind of removed from it. It feels static rather than immediate, respectful rather than raw.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t strong scenes and moments. The party at the Capulets’ is well done, Jessie Buckley does a great job with Juliet’s monologue before drinking Friar Laurence’s potion, and Mercutio’s final speech gives “a plague on both your houses” a weight I hadn’t seen there before. I also just really enjoy how the production is staged throughout the full theatre—the staging is excellent from start to finish. The offstage settings are used to great effect, and I like the choices the camera makes at times to linger on the reactions of someone who isn’t part of the scene (which we see sometimes in the scenes set in the rehearsal room, with the full cast present.) It was a neat way, not just to stage this story, but to make the theatre itself feel a bit like another character, which just further drives home the importance of theatre at a time when all of them were dark.

In addition to the actors I already mentioned, there are some other familiar faces in the cast. I’m not as familiar with Josh O’Connor myself, but I know he plays Charles in the more recent seasons of The Crown—as Romeo, he plays very well off of Buckley’s Juliet. Deborah Findlay, who I’ll always remember best as Greer in State of Play, is Juliet’s nurse, while Adrian Lester, one of my favorite Shakespearean actors, has a small role as Prince Escalus. The production also features Tamsin Grieg as Lady Capulet and Lucian Msamati as Friar Laurence.

Warnings

Violence, sexual references, drinking, and strong thematic elements (including suicide.)

A Few Notes on Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)

As a tragedy, Romeo and Juliet is fairly engrossing; as a love story, it’s pretty ridiculous.  I think we all know this, so I won’t get into that.  What I will get into is an interesting nugget that struck me the last time I read the play, dealing with Juliet and her father at the end of Act III.

So, context.  At this point, Juliet has married Romeo in secret, and Romeo, having killed her cousin in a feud-related street fight on his way home from their wedding, has been banished to Mantua.  He’s just said his goodbyes to her, staying in town long enough for them to have a wedding night before making himself scarce.  Friar Laurence is their ally, and they’re planning to bide their time until he comes up with a way reconcile their families to their marriage and Romeo can come home.

That’s the state of affairs when Lord Capulet throws a huge wrench in the whole “bide their time” plan – he’s decided that Juliet will marry Paris in two days.  She makes every protest she can think of, both reasonable and emotional, but he hears none of it.  (In truth, he’s downright vicious.  At the start of the play, his approval of Paris depends on Juliet’s feelings:  “An she agree, within her scope of choice / Lies my consent and fair according voice.”  The second she says that she doesn’t want to marry Paris, however, he turns on her absolutely.  It’s creepy.)

This exchange understandably puts Juliet in a state, and it spurs Friar Laurence to come up with the fateful faked-death plan that culminates in both Romeo and Juliet killing themselves over what basically amounts to a miscommunication and bad timing.  (Harsh, right?)  But the thing is, there was no need for an overly-complicated stratagem that involved lots of subterfuge and relied on a message being delivered by hand in a timely manner.  There was no need for Juliet to take drugs that nearly stop her heart, make her family think she’s dead, or lay her in her family crypt and wait for someone to break her out when she comes to.  This is because, during the very conversation that incites the creation of this insane plan, her dad gives her an out.

In the midst of his tirade, Lord Capulet makes it clear that, if Juliet doesn’t marry Paris, she’s breaking with the family.  “Get thee to church o’ Thursday,” he tells her, “Or never after look me in the face.”  Essentially, marry Paris or get out.  And because this is the scene in which Lord Capulet shows how awful he is, he makes no bones about it.  He goes on to say, “An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend; / And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For, by my soul, I'll ne’er acknowledge thee, / Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.”

This is Juliet’s chance.  She couldn’t have gone with Romeo to Mantua earlier, because her movements are too heavily dictated by her parents.  But here, her dad is saying that, if she doesn’t fall in line, she can leave home and never come back, starving for all he cares (once again – such a standup guy.)  Leaving home, what would she be able to do?  Join Romeo, be with him like she wants.  No crazy plan necessary – her dad is practically holding the door open for her.  But Juliet doesn’t take this chance.  Why?  It seems there are two forces pulling Juliet here.  She wants to be with Romeo, but she doesn’t want her family to think less of her.  She doesn’t want to be anything other than their good daughter.  At the end of the day, she would rather have them believe she’s dead than think that she defied them.  And that desire, in its own way, contributes to the end of her life.