‘Romeo and Juliet’ – Sydney Theatre Company

ROMEO AND JULIET – BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DIRECTED BY KIP WILLIAMS
SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY – SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY THEATRE
20 SEPTEMBER – 2 NOVEMBER 2013

Lea: Romeo and Juliet. Not at the Wharf 1 Theatre.
Sybil: Not at ALL at Wharf 1. Definitely not at Wharf 1.
Lea: It’s really good to realise that, 10 minutes before the show, when you’re at the other side of…
Sybil: Town! Yeah! But we made it!
Lea: Oh my GOD we made it!
Sybil: I think I missed the first 30 seconds which was that ‘wow’ of the revolve.
Lea: Yes I know.
Sybil: With that guy…
BOTH: Swinging from the chandelier!
Lea: Yes I know.
Sybil: But you know what, we fucking made it! *giggles*
Lea: God that’s good.
Sybil: And that’s the important thing!
Lea: That’s forever a part of this night. I love it.
Sybil: So pre-show drinks at The Bar at the End of the Wharf.
Lea: Completely the wrong theatre.
Sybil: Yes. And the wharf environment is lovely as always. Just significantly ill-placed.
Lea: For a show at the Drama Theatre.
Sybil: Anyway so, after a slight moment of panic, we arrived, not in our normal composed and relaxed state…
Lea: But still ready to absorb.
Sybil: But we need to say, we now understand why it was cancelled when the revolve wasn’t working.
Lea: Right! Because we were due to go a few weeks ago. And they politely sent us a message explaining that it was cancelled, but I said ‘Come on! Pfft! Work around it!’
Sybil: Right! Isn’t that theatre!?!
Lea: And then obviously, it SO requires the revolve.
Sybil: Kip Williams made fabulous use of it. Especially in the first half, I thought the set and the staging were…
Lea: It was a character
Sybil: It was the star of the show. In the first half.
Lea: Yeah.
Sybil: I thought it was really interesting with how intricate and clever the set was in the first half that they chose to have a black box for the second half.
Lea: Yeah.
Sybil: And I’m not entirely sure – was that saying the first half was all about falling in love and it being exciting and new and revealing itself and in the second half it was all about…
Lea: The stark reality of what’s actually happening…
Sybil: Everyone dying and…
Lea: Yes, quite possibly – it was very bleak.
Sybil: It was really bleak. And unrelentingly bleak.
Lea: When I first saw the set in the second half I was a bit disappointed. But I thought after relying on the revolve so heavily in the first half, it was actually refreshing for them to pare it back.
Sybil: Although they actually had a double revolve going on.
Lea: Oh YEAH! I was a big fan of that too. That was beautiful. Okay. Scratch what I just said. So last time I saw Romeo and Juliet, it was with Bell Shakespeare, like 2006… and they played Juliet as a bit of a fool.
Sybil: Ah interesting.
Lea: She was a bit more impetuous and a bit more bratty. So you were just like – oh she’s spoiled and she’s getting carried away with her emotions. But this Juliet (Eryn Jean Novill) was just – she was quite grounded. She really believed…
Sybil: She was young.
Lea: She believed in her love.
Sybil: But like, 13 year olds do!
Lea: Yeah.
Sybil: You know. When you fall in love for the first time, when you’re 13.
Lea: It’s all consuming
Sybil: It’s the only love you’re ever going to know.
Lea: It’s true love.
Sybil: It IS true love and it’s so immersive and complete.
Lea: But she wasn’t that kind of self-indulgent teenager.
Sybil: No.
Lea: And I just loved it.
Sybil: And I loved how unsure of herself and how new all the experiences were.
Lea: So I loved both Romeo (Dylan Young) and Juliet, and I thought that she was so endearing and so gorgeous and so charming that…
Sybil: He was just a LITTLE bit irritating.
Lea: He wasn’t charming enough.
Sybil: No I agree. And do you know the other thing. I didn’t think his clarity of language was as good as hers. She was very clear. And the other thing about him was especially in the scenes where he was topless – he was self conscious.
Lea: Aaahhhh. Yes, yes. You’re right. I didn’t notice that.
Sybil: You know, he was either holding his stomach in, or holding something in front of his stomach. And I was like – darling – you’re meant to be a 15 year old boy, you’re not meant to be ripped and… you know?
Lea: You know, I didn’t really believe that Romeo could have taken on Tybalt (Josh McConville) in a fight.
Sybil: No. Tybalt was really tough, and Romeo was really young.
Lea: The stage fight didn’t quite…
Sybil: The stage fight all the way through, was really weak. Really weak. REALLY weak.
Lea: Unfortunately.
Sybil: Like – either go stylised and ‘ballet’ or be realistic and do it properly.
Lea: You gotta go hard.
Sybil: I was actually thinking about Lawrence and Simon, our teachers from our stage fight classes back in the day – I was thinking GOD!
Lea: They’d be appalled!
Sybil: And I remember some of the demo fights that they did and they ran rings around these guys.
Lea: Maybe they didn’t spend the time on the fights so much.
Sybil: Yeah. Sad.
Lea: But I mean, we’re nit–picking now because overall the production was fantastic.
Sybil: Really fantastic. I really want to see more of Kip’s work. I think his imagination with staging is actually really outstanding. I mean I think his staging from Under Milk Wood and now here is probably the best staging I’ve seen in the last year. I thought it was interesting what he did with shifting the emphasis to Juliet’s family.
Lea: Yeah, rather than trying to split it between the two families.
Sybil: And I really liked the ending.
Lea: Yes – the power shifted.
Sybil: Much more was left up in the air. Yes, she took the power back from her father and she didn’t actually kill herself.
Lea: It was implied…
Sybil: But she didn’t actually do it. Not necessarily.
Lea: It was actually a really good re-working. I felt like the essence of the play was intact, the language wasn’t butchered, and a lot of the big scenes were still given their time, even with some characters cut out and some scenes obviously cut out – you know what I thought, the Friar (Mitchell Butel) ended up having a lot more power in this re-working because he actually seemed to be in a way pushing people’s hands and directions.
Sybil: Yes absolutely.
Lea: And that’s not always the case – in this version he was almost dealing the poisons – the apothecary wasn’t there as the drug dealer, so the Friar seemed a lot more powerful rather than just bowing to the will of Romeo and Juliet. He was a player.
Sybil: I thought the nurse (Julie Forsyth) was good.
Lea: Yes, she was a very good…
Sybil: Character.
Lea: And when she recommended Juliet actually marry Paris (Alexander England) it was from…
Sybil: Love!
Lea: Yes, it was the best idea for Juliet. I’ve seen that played very differently with the nurse turning her allegiance for the family.
Sybil: No – I think she did it out of love.
Lea: We have to make mention of Lady Capulet’s (Anna Lise Phillips) first entrance. That stunning dress.
Sybil: I didn’t actually get the significance of it – like I got the wow factor, why wouldn’t you, she looked amazing, but I didn’t feel like she was actually that strong and I don’t understand the significance of making that entrance so strong.
Lea: I thought that it might have been that you saw the power drain from her – the role that you thought she played and the role she thought she played in the family, yet as soon as Capulet (Colin Moody) decided that the best course of action for the family was for Juliet to marry Paris, that’s when she saw that she had no power in the family and that she actually may as well have been that 13 year old bride herself.
Sybil: Ah interesting.
Lea: And her outfit got smaller. Her hair got smaller. And she became smaller. She was insignificant not only in her husband’s life, but in her daughter’s life.
Sybil: Yeah, good point. I’ll pay that one.
Lea: And how about the party, Sybil!
Sybil: Oh my goodness, the balloons and those freaky–ass…
Lea: Bunny heads!
Sybil: Yes.
Lea: Oh those bunny heads!
Sybil: Yeah.
Lea: And that veil that Juliet wore freaked me out too actually. I thought that veil was awful. As in, it was kind of – you have no identity.
Sybil: I thought the costumes overall were fantastic. Yeah, I think big credits to Kip Williams, big credit to Juliet (Eryn Jean Norvill) and big credit to the set and costume designer (David Fleischer).
Lea: Absolutely. It was a good night at the theatre. Rushy-rush to get there, and it went till 11pm, so it was a long show, but…
Sybil: I felt like the second act dragged a little… but the last scene was awesome.
Lea: Worth it.
Sybil: Out of 5?
Lea: Oh, 4.
Sybil: I’m going to go a 4.
Lea: Yay!
Sybil: We don’t often agree!
Lea: Check us out!

IN SUMMARY

Sybil: Fresh, engaging performances, beautifully directed and visually quite stunning. Immersive and surprising. Can’t wait to see more of Kip Williams’ and Eryn Jean Novill’s work.
Lea: How amazing to be surprised by a play you know so well. The more I talked about the show, the more I appreciated it. Like a fine wine. Cheers Kip and cast. A great piece of theatre. Here’s to more.

PRE-SHOW DRINKS: Bar at the End of the Wharf
POST SHOW DRINKS: In Sybil’s car as she dropped Lea home.
OUR HANGOVER STATUS: As untouched as Juliet’s wedding night sheets.