New (well, mostly used) Shakespeare Paraphernalia!

Here's some Shakespeare stuff that arrived this week! I'll add them to my sources list as soon as I get around to it.

Romeo and Juliet Part 4 - Rakoff

Remember what I said a few weeks ago about how hard it is to cast Juliet? I said something about how hard it would be to find a teenage actress to play such a difficult role. According to imdb.com, Rebecca Saire was only fifteen when she played Juliet in the 1978 BBC production, and she did a great job. She wasn’t perfect - she’s no Ann Hasson, for my money - but she did a really impressive job with the role.

The problem with this production wasn’t the acting, (although I don’t like Anthony Andrews as Mercutio. His twitchy style makes it look like Mercutio is snorting coke offstage). The problem is the lighting. My high school drama coach used to say of theater, “Without lights, this is called radio,” which is OK, just not what I’m looking for. I get that they may have been going for a “darker” version of the play, but still, when Mercutio is giving the Queen Mab speech, or Juliet is talking to Romeo from the balcony, the audience wants to see them act, which means you don’t let their faces go into shadow. I know great lighting can’t fix bad acting, but in this case there was good acting being ruined by bad lighting. Very disappointing.

Here are some more of my notes from this production:

• Jacqueline Hill (played Barbara Wright in the first few seasons of Doctor Who back in the 1960’s) is my Fantasy Shakespeare League pick for Lady Capulet.
• John Savident kills the role of Friar John. This is a nothing role. He gets one scene where he spouts an explanation for why Romeo didn’t get the message about Juliet faking her death. Savident is a breath of fresh air, turning the role in to some desperately needed comic relief. He’s my FSL pick for Friar John every time.
• They cut the “Poor John” joke from ACT I Scene 1. It’s the best joke in the play, and they cut it.

This production currently ranks as my second favorite Romeo and Juliet.

Here’s the overall ranking so far:

1. Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Joan Kemp-Welch. Perf. Christopher Neame, Ann Hasson, and Robin Nedwell. Thames Television, 1976. DVD, A&E Television Networks, 2005.
2. Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Alvin Rakoff. Perf. Patrick Ryecart, Rebecca Saire, and Anthony Andrews. 1978. DVD, Ambrose, 2000.
3. Romeo and Juliet. Chor. Kenneth MacMillan. Perf. Angel Corella, Alessandra Ferri, and Michele Villanova. Teatro Alla Scala, Milan, JAN 2000. DVD, Euroarts, 2002.
4. Shakespeare Series: Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Larry Sullivan. Perf. Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker, and Dan Hamilton. Shakespeare Video Society, 1982. Amazon.com, 15 AUG 2013.

Romeo and Juliet Part 3 - MacMillan

I’ll be the first to admit that my qualifications for this project are, shall we say, dubious. Basically, I have a library card, an Amazon Prime subscription, and an interest in the subject. When it comes to critiquing ballet I’m way beyond my depth, so I’ll try not to make a fool of myself.

Ballet on screen is very different from ballet on stage, even though this is a filmed recording of a stage production. A few years ago, I went to Boston with my family and a number of my sisters to see the Boston Ballet Company production of Swan Lake. To do that, we had to order ballet tickets, order train tickets, and make plans for supper in the city. Before any of that, we had to decide that we were going to go to the ballet and that this was a valuable experience for us. My point is that we were invested in the theater experience before we even left home. We wanted to live this experience and we wanted it to move us in some way. What’s more, the performers on stage and in the orchestra pit were invested, too. At any point in the show, any one of the ballerinas could have said to themselves, “My toes hurt. I’m hungry. To hell with this, I’m going back to waitressing at Denny’s: the pay was better, and I’d get to wear comfortable shoes.” 

This production of Romeo and Juliet is probably as good a ballet as you’re going to find. Angel Corella is amazing as the crazy-in-love Romeo. Alessandra Ferri makes mind-bending moves look incredibly easy as Juliet. Michele Villanova as Mercutio has one of the best deaths of any Mercutio I’ve seen so far. Gianni Ghisleni is a great, villainous Tybalt. The score is a classic by Sergei Prokofiev.

Making it look easy is the most impressive aspect of ballet, as far as I’m concerned. I can’t imagine the amount of practice and dedication that goes in to ballet. As I say, I am far beyond my depth on this one. 

If you only have time to watch one version of Romeo and Juliet, you probably shouldn’t go for this one, but I would encourage you to put this on your list to watch. The power of ballet isn’t in its ability to tell a story (because if you don’t know the story already, you’ll be pretty lost), but in the way it conveys the emotions of a story. That power is why I currently rank this as my second-favorite Romeo and Juliet.

Here’s the overall ranking so far:

1. Romeo & Juliet. Dir. Joan Kemp-Welch. Perf. Christopher Neame, Ann Hasson, and Robin Nedwell. Thames Television, 1976. DVD, A&E Television Networks, 2005.
2. Romeo and Juliet. Chor. Kenneth MacMillan. Perf. Angel Corella, Alessandra Ferri, and Michele Villanova. Teatro Alla Scala, Milan, JAN 2000. DVD, Euroarts, 2002.
3. Shakespeare Series: Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Larry Sullivan. Perf. Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker, and Dan Hamilton. Shakespeare Video Society, 1982. Amazon.com, 15 AUG 2013.

Romeo and Juliet Part 2 - Kemp-Welch

If you only have time to watch one Romeo and Juliet, this would be a good one to watch. Excellent directing. Excellent acting. Even the fights are believable.

Produced by Thames Television in 1976, and directed by Joan Kemp-Welch, this version is as good a Romeo and Juliet as I expect to see. 

I don’t know how old Ann Hasson was in 1976. IMDB.com has no biographical information about her, and if she wants her privacy, that’s fine. She looks to me to have been in her early twenties, but she easily passes as thirteen. If there were a Fantasy Shakespeare League, I would have her on my team to play Juliet. Her performance is excellent. Casting Juliet is a huge problem. For one thing, Shakespeare makes it clear that she’s thirteen years old - almost fourteen - and (at the beginning of the play) thinks of herself as a child. So obviously, you should cast a child actress. But good luck finding one that can play this role! Shakespeare, of course, was writing it for a teenage boy, but that’s neither here nor there. By the end of the play at least, Shakespeare wrote Juliet so that you could believe her to be anywhere from seventeen to twenty-two. I suspect most casting directors look for an actress in her early twenties and hope that the audience will play along and believe that she could be thirteen. Ann Hasson pulled it off. If you want to know how to play Juliet, watch Ann Hasson. 

(By the way, based on her performance in True Grit, I have high hopes for Hailee Steinfeld, who will be seen as Juliet in a Romeo and Juliet scheduled to be in theaters in October 2013. Here’s the trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3520702745/.)

Christopher Neame is a very active Romeo. Unlike Alex Hyde-White, he understood the words coming out of his mouth. He and David Robb (Tybalt) appear in the special features discussing their memories of the production. Apparently they were in school with Robin Nedwell (who kills it as Mercutio) and fight coordinator William Hobbs. 

I also gave to mention the excellent performances of Clive Swift as Friar Lawrence (who you’ll recognize from at least two appearances on Doctor Who) and Patsy Byrne, who is now my Fantasy Shakespeare League Nurse. You’ll recognize her from playing essentially the same character in Blackadder II.

This production currently ranks as my favorite Romeo and Juliet.

Here’s the overall ranking so far:

1. Romeo & Juliet. Dir. Joan Kemp-Welch. Perf. Christopher Neame, Ann Hasson, and Robin Nedwell. Thames Television, 1976. DVD, A&E Television Networks, 2005.
2. Shakespeare Series: Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Larry Sullivan. Perf. Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker, and Dan Hamilton. Shakespeare Video Society, 1982. Amazon.com, 15 AUG 2013.