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scholars have found it extremely difficult to assign one specific overarching theme to the play proposals for a main theme include a discovery by the characters that human beings are neither wholly good nor wholly evil but instead are more or less alike awaking out of a dream and into reality the danger of hasty action or the power of tragic fate none of these have widespread support however even if an overall theme cannot be found it is clear that the play is full of several small thematic elements that intertwine in complex ways several of those most often debated by scholars are discussed below
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= = = love = = =
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romeo and juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme save that of young love romeo and juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love since it is such an obvious subject of the play several scholars have explored the language and historical context behind the romance of the play
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on their first meeting romeo and juliet use a form of communication recommended by many etiquette authors in shakespeare 's day metaphor by using metaphors of saints and sins romeo was able to test juliet 's feelings for him in a non @@ threatening way this method was recommended by baldassare castiglione ( whose works had been translated into english by this time ) he pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation the woman could pretend she did not understand him and he could retreat without losing honour juliet however participates in the metaphor and expands on it the religious metaphors of shrine pilgrim and saint were fashionable in the poetry of the time and more likely to be understood as romantic rather than blasphemous as the concept of sainthood was associated with the catholicism of an earlier age later in the play shakespeare removes the more daring allusions to christ 's resurrection in the tomb he found in his source work brooke 's romeus and juliet
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in the later balcony scene shakespeare has romeo overhear juliet 's soliloquy but in brooke 's version of the story her declaration is done alone by bringing romeo into the scene to eavesdrop shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship usually a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot the lovers are able to skip courting and move on to plain talk about their relationship agreeing to be married after knowing each other for only one night in the final suicide scene there is a contradiction in the message in the catholic religion suicides were often thought to be condemned to hell whereas people who die to be with their loves under the religion of love are joined with their loves in paradise romeo and juliet 's love seems to be expressing the religion of love view rather than the catholic view another point is that although their love is passionate it is only consummated in marriage which keeps them from losing the audience 's sympathy
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the play arguably equates love and sex with death throughout the story both romeo and juliet along with the other characters <unk> about it as a dark being often equating it with a lover capulet for example when he first discovers juliet 's ( faked ) death describes it as having deflowered his daughter juliet later erotically compares romeo and death right before her suicide she grabs romeo 's dagger saying o happy dagger this is thy sheath there rust and let me die
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= = = fate and chance = = =
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scholars are divided on the role of fate in the play no consensus exists on whether the characters are truly fated to die together or whether the events take place by a series of unlucky chances arguments in favour of fate often refer to the description of the lovers as star @@ cross 'd this phrase seems to hint that the stars have predetermined the lovers ' future john w draper points out the parallels between the elizabethan belief in the four humours and the main characters of the play ( for example tybalt as a choleric ) interpreting the text in the light of humours reduces the amount of plot attributed to chance by modern audiences still other scholars see the play as a series of unlucky chances many to such a degree that they do not see it as a tragedy at all but an emotional melodrama ruth nevo believes the high degree to which chance is stressed in the narrative makes romeo and juliet a lesser tragedy of happenstance not of character for example romeo 's challenging tybalt is not impulsive it is after mercutio 's death the expected action to take in this scene nevo reads romeo as being aware of the dangers of flouting social norms identity and commitments he makes the choice to kill not because of a tragic flaw but because of circumstance
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= = = duality ( light and dark ) = = =
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scholars have long noted shakespeare 's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play caroline spurgeon considers the theme of light as symbolic of the natural beauty of young love and later critics have expanded on this interpretation for example both romeo and juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness romeo describes juliet as being like the sun brighter than a torch a jewel sparkling in the night and a bright angel among dark clouds even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb he says her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light juliet describes romeo as day in night and whiter than snow upon a raven 's back this contrast of light and dark can be expanded as symbols contrasting love and hate youth and age in a metaphoric way sometimes these intertwining metaphors create dramatic irony for example romeo and juliet 's love is a light in the midst of the darkness of the hate around them but all of their activity together is done in night and darkness while all of the feuding is done in broad daylight this paradox of imagery adds atmosphere to the moral dilemma facing the two lovers loyalty to family or loyalty to love at the end of the story when the morning is gloomy and the sun hiding its face for sorrow light and dark have returned to their proper places the outward darkness reflecting the true inner darkness of the family feud out of sorrow for the lovers all characters now recognise their folly in light of recent events and things return to the natural order thanks to the love and death of romeo and juliet the light theme in the play is also heavily connected to the theme of time since light was a convenient way for shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun moon and stars
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= = = time = = =
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time plays an important role in the language and plot of the play both romeo and juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world void of time in the face of the harsh realities that surround them for instance when romeo swears his love to juliet by the moon she protests o swear not by the moon th <unk> moon / that monthly changes in her circled orb / lest that thy love prove likewise variable from the very beginning the lovers are designated as star @@ cross 'd referring to an <unk> belief associated with time stars were thought to control the fates of humanity and as time passed stars would move along their course in the sky also charting the course of human lives below romeo speaks of a foreboding he feels in the stars ' movements early in the play and when he learns of juliet 's death he defies the stars ' course for him
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another central theme is haste shakespeare 's romeo and juliet spans a period of four to six days in contrast to brooke 's poem 's spanning nine months scholars such as g thomas <unk> believe that time was especially important to shakespeare in this play as he used references to short @@ time for the young lovers as opposed to references to long @@ time for the older generation to highlight a headlong rush towards doom romeo and juliet fight time to make their love last forever in the end the only way they seem to defeat time is through a death that makes them immortal through art
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time is also connected to the theme of light and dark in shakespeare 's day plays were most often performed at noon or in the afternoon in broad daylight this forced the playwright to use words to create the illusion of day and night in his plays shakespeare uses references to the night and day the stars the moon and the sun to create this illusion he also has characters frequently refer to days of the week and specific hours to help the audience understand that time has passed in the story all in all no fewer than 103 references to time are found in the play adding to the illusion of its passage
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= = criticism and interpretation = =
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= = = critical history = = =
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the earliest known critic of the play was diarist samuel pepys who wrote in 1662 it is a play of itself the worst that i ever heard in my life poet john dryden wrote 10 years later in praise of the play and its comic character mercutio shakespear show 'd the best of his skill in his mercutio and he said himself that he was <unk> 'd to kill him in the third act to prevent being killed by him criticism of the play in the 18th century was less sparse but no less divided publisher nicholas rowe was the first critic to ponder the theme of the play which he saw as the just punishment of the two feuding families in mid @@ century writer charles <unk> and philosopher lord kames argued that the play was a failure in that it did not follow the classical rules of drama the tragedy must occur because of some character flaw not an accident of fate writer and critic samuel johnson however considered it one of shakespeare 's most pleasing plays
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in the later part of the 18th and through the 19th century criticism centred on debates over the moral message of the play actor and playwright david garrick 's 1748 adaptation excluded rosaline romeo abandoning her for juliet was seen as fickle and reckless critics such as charles dibdin argued that rosaline had been purposely included in the play to show how reckless the hero was and that this was the reason for his tragic end others argued that friar laurence might be shakespeare 's spokesman in his warnings against undue haste with the advent of the 20th century these moral arguments were disputed by critics such as richard green moulton he argued that accident and not some character flaw led to the lovers ' deaths
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= = = dramatic structure = = =
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in romeo and juliet shakespeare employs several dramatic techniques that have garnered praise from critics most notably the abrupt shifts from comedy to tragedy ( an example is the punning exchange between benvolio and mercutio just before tybalt arrives ) before mercutio 's death in act three the play is largely a comedy after his accidental demise the play suddenly becomes serious and takes on a tragic tone when romeo is banished rather than executed and friar laurence offers juliet a plan to reunite her with romeo the audience can still hope that all will end well they are in a breathless state of suspense by the opening of the last scene in the tomb if romeo is delayed long enough for the friar to arrive he and juliet may yet be saved these shifts from hope to despair reprieve and new hope serve to emphasise the tragedy when the final hope fails and both the lovers die at the end
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shakespeare also uses sub @@ plots to offer a clearer view of the actions of the main characters for example when the play begins romeo is in love with rosaline who has refused all of his advances romeo 's infatuation with her stands in obvious contrast to his later love for juliet this provides a comparison through which the audience can see the seriousness of romeo and juliet 's love and marriage paris ' love for juliet also sets up a contrast between juliet 's feelings for him and her feelings for romeo the formal language she uses around paris as well as the way she talks about him to her nurse show that her feelings clearly lie with romeo beyond this the sub @@ plot of the montague capulet feud <unk> the whole play providing an atmosphere of hate that is the main contributor to the play 's tragic end
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= = = language = = =
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shakespeare uses a variety of poetic forms throughout the play he begins with a 14 @@ line prologue in the form of a shakespearean sonnet spoken by a chorus most of romeo and juliet is however written in blank verse and much of it in strict iambic pentameter with less rhythmic variation than in most of shakespeare 's later plays in choosing forms shakespeare matches the poetry to the character who uses it friar laurence for example uses sermon and sententiae forms and the nurse uses a unique blank verse form that closely matches colloquial speech each of these forms is also moulded and matched to the emotion of the scene the character occupies for example when romeo talks about rosaline earlier in the play he attempts to use the petrarchan sonnet form petrarchan sonnets were often used by men to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain as in romeo 's situation with rosaline this sonnet form is used by lady capulet to describe count paris to juliet as a handsome man when romeo and juliet meet the poetic form changes from the petrarchan ( which was becoming archaic in shakespeare 's day ) to a then more contemporary sonnet form using pilgrims and saints as metaphors finally when the two meet on the balcony romeo attempts to use the sonnet form to pledge his love but juliet breaks it by saying dost thou love me by doing this she searches for true expression rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love juliet uses monosyllabic words with romeo but uses formal language with paris other forms in the play include an epithalamium by juliet a rhapsody in mercutio 's queen mab speech and an elegy by paris shakespeare saves his prose style most often for the common people in the play though at times he uses it for other characters such as mercutio humour also is important scholar molly <unk> identifies at least 175 puns and wordplays in the text many of these jokes are sexual in nature especially those involving mercutio and the nurse
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= = = psychoanalytic criticism = = =
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early psychoanalytic critics saw the problem of romeo and juliet in terms of romeo 's impulsiveness deriving from ill @@ controlled partially disguised aggression which leads both to mercutio 's death and to the double suicide romeo and juliet is not considered to be exceedingly psychologically complex and sympathetic psychoanalytic readings of the play make the tragic male experience equivalent with sicknesses norman holland writing in 1966 considers romeo 's dream as a realistic wish fulfilling fantasy both in terms of romeo 's adult world and his hypothetical childhood at stages oral phallic and oedipal while acknowledging that a dramatic character is not a human being with mental processes separate from those of the author critics such as julia <unk> focus on the hatred between the families arguing that this hatred is the cause of romeo and juliet 's passion for each other that hatred manifests itself directly in the lovers ' language juliet for example speaks of my only love sprung from my only hate and often expresses her passion through an anticipation of romeo 's death this leads on to speculation as to the playwright 's psychology in particular to a consideration of shakespeare 's grief for the death of his son hamnet
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= = = feminist criticism = = =
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feminist literary critics argue that the blame for the family feud lies in verona 's patriarchal society for coppélia kahn for example the strict masculine code of violence imposed on romeo is the main force driving the tragedy to its end when tybalt kills mercutio romeo shifts into this violent mode regretting that juliet has made him so effeminate in this view the younger males become men by engaging in violence on behalf of their fathers or in the case of the servants their masters the feud is also linked to male virility as the numerous jokes about <unk> aptly demonstrate juliet also submits to a female code of docility by allowing others such as the friar to solve her problems for her other critics such as <unk> callaghan look at the play 's feminism from a historicist angle stressing that when the play was written the feudal order was being challenged by increasingly centralised government and the advent of capitalism at the same time emerging puritan ideas about marriage were less concerned with the evils of female sexuality than those of earlier eras and more sympathetic towards love @@ matches when juliet dodges her father 's attempt to force her to marry a man she has no feeling for she is challenging the patriarchal order in a way that would not have been possible at an earlier time
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= = = queer theory = = =
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a number of critics have found the character of mercutio to have unacknowledged homoerotic desire for romeo jonathan goldberg examined the sexuality of mercutio and romeo utilising queer theory in <unk> the renaissance comparing their friendship with sexual love mercutio in friendly conversation mentions romeo 's phallus suggesting traces of homoeroticism an example is his joking wish to raise a spirit in his mistress ' circle letting it there stand / till she had laid it and conjured it down romeo 's homoeroticism can also be found in his attitude to rosaline a woman who is distant and unavailable and brings no hope of offspring as benvolio argues she is best replaced by someone who will reciprocate shakespeare 's procreation sonnets describe another young man who like romeo is having trouble creating offspring and who may be seen as being a homosexual goldberg believes that shakespeare may have used rosaline as a way to express homosexual problems of procreation in an acceptable way in this view when juliet says that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet she may be raising the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of a man and the beauty of a woman
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= = = the balcony scene = = =
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the balcony scene was introduced by da porto in 1524 he had romeo walk frequently by her house sometimes climbing to her chamber window and wrote it happened one night as love ordained when the moon shone unusually bright that whilst romeo was climbing the balcony the young lady opened the window and looking out saw him after this they have a conversation in which they declare eternal love to each other a few decades later bandello greatly expanded this scene diverging from the familiar one julia has her nurse deliver a letter asking romeo to come to her window with a rope ladder and he climbs the balcony with the help of his servant julia and the nurse ( the servants discreetly withdraw after this )
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nevertheless in october 2014 lois leveen speculated in the atlantic that the original shakespeare play did not contain a balcony the word <unk> did not exist in the english language until two years after shakespeare 's death the balcony was certainly used in thomas otway 's 1679 play the history and fall of caius marius which had borrowed much of its story from romeo and juliet and placed the two lovers in a balcony reciting a speech similar to that between romeo and juliet leveen suggested that during the 18th century david garrick chose to use a balcony in his adaptation and revival of romeo and juliet and modern adaptations have continued this tradition
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= = legacy = =
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= = = shakespeare 's day = = =
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romeo and juliet ranks with hamlet as one of shakespeare 's most performed plays its many adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and famous stories even in shakespeare 's lifetime it was extremely popular scholar gary taylor measures it as the sixth most popular of shakespeare 's plays in the period after the death of christopher marlowe and thomas kyd but before the ascendancy of ben jonson during which shakespeare was london 's dominant playwright the date of the first performance is unknown the first quarto printed in 1597 says that it hath been often ( and with great applause ) plaid <unk> setting the first performance before that date the lord chamberlain 's men were certainly the first to perform it besides their strong connections with shakespeare the second quarto actually names one of its actors will kemp instead of peter in a line in act five richard burbage was probably the first romeo being the company 's actor and master robert goffe ( a boy ) the first juliet the premiere is likely to have been at the theatre with other early productions at the curtain romeo and juliet is one of the first shakespearean plays to have been performed outside england a shortened and simplified version was performed in nördlingen in 1604
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= = = restoration and 18th @@ century theatre = = =
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all theatres were closed down by the puritan government on september 6 1642 upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 two patent companies ( the king 's company and the duke 's company ) were established and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them
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sir william davenant of the duke 's company staged a 1662 adaptation in which henry harris played romeo thomas betterton mercutio and betterton 's wife mary <unk> juliet she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally another version closely followed davenant 's adaptation and was also regularly performed by the duke 's company this was a tragicomedy by james howard in which the two lovers survive
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thomas otway 's the history and fall of caius marius one of the more extreme of the restoration adaptations of shakespeare debuted in 1680 the scene is shifted from renaissance verona to ancient rome romeo is marius juliet is lavinia the feud is between patricians and plebeians juliet / lavinia wakes from her potion before romeo / marius dies otway 's version was a hit and was acted for the next seventy years his innovation in the closing scene was even more enduring and was used in adaptations throughout the next 200 years theophilus cibber 's adaptation of 1744 and david garrick 's of 1748 both used variations on it these versions also eliminated elements deemed inappropriate at the time for example garrick 's version transferred all language describing rosaline to juliet to heighten the idea of faithfulness and downplay the love @@ at @@ first @@ sight theme in 1750 a battle of the romeos began with spranger barry and susannah maria arne ( mrs theophilus cibber ) at covent garden versus david garrick and george anne bellamy at drury lane
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the earliest known production in north america was an amateur one on 23 march 1730 a physician named <unk> bertrand placed an advertisement in the gazette newspaper in new york promoting a production in which he would play the apothecary the first professional performances of the play in north america were those of the hallam company
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= = = 19th @@ century theatre = = =
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garrick 's altered version of the play was very popular and ran for nearly a century not until 1845 did shakespeare 's original return to the stage in the united states with the sisters susan and charlotte cushman as juliet and romeo respectively and then in 1847 in britain with samuel phelps at sadler 's wells theatre cushman adhered to shakespeare 's version beginning a string of eighty @@ four performances her portrayal of romeo was considered genius by many the times wrote for a long time romeo has been a convention miss cushman 's romeo is a creative a living breathing animated ardent human being queen victoria wrote in her journal that no @@ one would ever have imagined she was a woman cushman 's success broke the garrick tradition and paved the way for later performances to return to the original storyline
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professional performances of shakespeare in the mid @@ 19th century had two particular features firstly they were generally star vehicles with supporting roles cut or marginalised to give greater prominence to the central characters secondly they were pictorial placing the action on spectacular and elaborate sets ( requiring lengthy pauses for scene changes ) and with the frequent use of tableaux henry irving 's 1882 production at the lyceum theatre ( with himself as romeo and ellen terry as juliet ) is considered an archetype of the pictorial style in 1895 sir johnston forbes @@ robertson took over from irving and laid the groundwork for a more natural portrayal of shakespeare that remains popular today forbes @@ robertson avoided the <unk> of irving and instead portrayed a down @@ to @@ earth romeo expressing the poetic dialogue as realistic prose and avoiding melodramatic flourish
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american actors began to rival their british counterparts edwin booth ( brother to john wilkes booth ) and mary mcvicker ( soon to be edwin 's wife ) opened as romeo and juliet at the sumptuous booth 's theatre ( with its european @@ style stage machinery and an air conditioning system unique in new york ) on 3 february 1869 some reports said it was one of the most elaborate productions of romeo and juliet ever seen in america it was certainly the most popular running for over six weeks and earning over $ 60 @@ 000 ( equal to about $ 1 @@ 067 @@ 000 today ) the programme noted that the tragedy will be produced in strict accordance with historical propriety in every respect following closely the text of shakespeare
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the first professional performance of the play in japan may have been george crichton <unk> 's company 's production which toured to yokohama in 1890 throughout the 19th century romeo and juliet had been shakespeare 's most popular play measured by the number of professional performances in the 20th century it would become the second most popular behind hamlet
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= = = 20th @@ century theatre = = =
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in 1933 the play was revived by actress katharine cornell and her director husband guthrie mcclintic and was taken on a seven @@ month nationwide tour throughout the united states it starred orson welles brian aherne and basil rathbone the production was a modest success and so upon the return to new york cornell and mcclintic revised it and for the first time the play was presented with almost all the scenes intact including the prologue the new production opened in december 1934 with ralph richardson as mercutio and maurice evans as romeo critics wrote that cornell was the finest juliet of her time endlessly haunting and the most lovely and enchanting juliet our present @@ day theatre has seen
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john gielgud 's new theatre production in 1935 featured gielgud and laurence olivier as romeo and mercutio exchanging roles six weeks into the run with peggy ashcroft as juliet gielgud used a scholarly combination of q1 and q2 texts and organised the set and costumes to match as closely as possible to the elizabethan period his efforts were a huge success at the box office and set the stage for increased historical realism in later productions olivier later compared his performance and gielgud 's john all spiritual all spirituality all beauty all abstract things and myself as all earth blood humanity i 've always felt that john missed the lower half and that made me go for the other but whatever it was when i was playing romeo i was carrying a torch i was trying to sell realism in shakespeare
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peter brook 's 1947 version was the beginning of a different style of romeo and juliet performances brook was less concerned with realism and more concerned with translating the play into a form that could communicate with the modern world he argued a production is only correct at the moment of its correctness and only good at the moment of its success brook excluded the final reconciliation of the families from his performance text
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throughout the century audiences influenced by the cinema became less willing to accept actors distinctly older than the teenage characters they were playing a significant example of more youthful casting was in franco zeffirelli 's old vic production in 1960 with john stride and judi dench which would serve as the basis for his 1968 film zeffirelli borrowed from brook 's ideas altogether removing around a third of the play 's text to make it more accessible in an interview with the times he stated that the play 's twin themes of love and the total breakdown of understanding between two generations had contemporary relevance
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recent performances often set the play in the contemporary world for example in 1986 the royal shakespeare company set the play in modern verona <unk> replaced swords feasts and balls became drug @@ laden rock parties and romeo committed suicide by hypodermic needle in 1997 the folger shakespeare theatre produced a version set in a typical suburban world romeo sneaks into the capulet barbecue to meet juliet and juliet discovers tybalt 's death while in class at school
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the play is sometimes given a historical setting enabling audiences to reflect on the underlying conflicts for example adaptations have been set in the midst of the israeli @@ palestinian conflict in the apartheid era in south africa and in the aftermath of the pueblo revolt similarly peter ustinov 's 1956 comic adaptation romanoff and juliet is set in a fictional mid @@ european country in the depths of the cold war a mock @@ victorian revisionist version of romeo and juliet 's final scene ( with a happy ending romeo juliet mercutio and paris restored to life and benvolio revealing that he is paris 's love <unk> in disguise ) forms part of the 1980 stage @@ play the life and adventures of nicholas nickleby shakespeare s r & j by joe <unk> spins the classic in a modern tale of gay teenage awakening a recent comedic musical adaptation was the second city 's the second city 's romeo and juliet musical the people vs friar laurence the man who killed romeo and juliet set in modern times
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in the 19th and 20th century romeo and juliet has often been the choice of shakespeare plays to open a classical theatre company beginning with edwin booth 's inaugural production of that play in his theatre in 1869 the newly reformed company of the old vic in 1929 with john gielgud <unk> hunt and margaret webster as well as the riverside shakespeare company in its founding production in new york city in 1977 which used the 1968 film of franco zeffirelli 's production as its inspiration
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in 2013 romeo and juliet ran on broadway at richard rodgers theatre from september 19 to december 8 for 93 regular performances after 27 previews starting on august 24 with orlando bloom and <unk> rashad in the starring roles
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= = = = ballet = = = =
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the best @@ known ballet version is prokofiev 's romeo and juliet originally commissioned by the kirov ballet it was rejected by them when prokofiev attempted a happy ending and was rejected again for the experimental nature of its music it has subsequently attained an immense reputation and has been choreographed by john cranko ( 1962 ) and kenneth macmillan ( 1965 ) among others
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in 1977 michael <unk> 's production of one of the play 's most dramatic and impassioned dance interpretations was debuted in its entirety by san francisco ballet this production was the first full @@ length ballet to be broadcast by the pbs series great performances dance in america it aired in 1978
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= = = music = = =
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at least 27 operas have been based on romeo and juliet the earliest romeo und julie in 1776 a singspiel by georg benda omits much of the action of the play and most of its characters and has a happy ending it is occasionally revived the best @@ known is gounod 's 1867 roméo et juliette ( libretto by jules barbier and michel carré ) a critical triumph when first performed and frequently revived today bellini 's i <unk> e i <unk> is also revived from time to time but has sometimes been judged unfavourably because of its perceived liberties with shakespeare however bellini and his librettist felice romani worked from italian sources principally romani 's libretto for giulietta e romeo by nicola <unk> rather than directly adapting shakespeare 's play among later operas there is heinrich <unk> 's 1940 work romeo und julia
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roméo et juliette by berlioz is a symphonie <unk> a large @@ scale work in three parts for mixed voices chorus and orchestra which premiered in 1839 tchaikovsky 's romeo and juliet fantasy @@ overture ( 1869 revised 1870 and 1880 ) is a 15 @@ minute symphonic poem containing the famous melody known as the love theme tchaikovsky 's device of repeating the same musical theme at the ball in the balcony scene in juliet 's bedroom and in the tomb has been used by subsequent directors for example nino rota 's love theme is used in a similar way in the 1968 film of the play as is des 'ree 's kissing you in the 1996 film other classical composers influenced by the play include henry hugh pearson ( romeo and juliet overture for orchestra op 86 ) svendsen ( romeo og julie 1876 ) delius ( a village romeo and juliet 1899 1901 ) stenhammar ( romeo och julia 1922 ) and <unk> ( incidental music to romeo and juliet op 56 1956 )
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the play influenced several jazz works including peggy lee 's fever duke ellington 's such sweet thunder contains a piece entitled the star @@ crossed lovers in which the pair are represented by tenor and alto saxophones critics noted that juliet 's sax dominates the piece rather than offering an image of equality the play has frequently influenced popular music including works by the supremes bruce springsteen tom waits lou reed and taylor swift the most famous such track is dire straits ' romeo and juliet
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the most famous musical theatre adaptation is west side story with music by leonard bernstein and lyrics by stephen sondheim it débuted on broadway in 1957 and in the west end in 1958 and became a popular film in 1961 this version updated the setting to mid @@ 20th @@ century new york city and the warring families to ethnic gangs other musical adaptations include terrence mann 's 1999 rock musical william shakespeare 's romeo and juliet co @@ written with jerome korman gérard <unk> 's 2001 roméo et juliette de la haine à l 'amour and riccardo cocciante 's 2007 giulietta & romeo
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