Herefordshire | Archive | 2003 | October | 2
From the archive, first published Thursday 2nd Oct 2003.
"I wanted to bring a new kind of reality and earthiness and immediacy to Shakespeare, regardless of the verse".
Stephen Unwin, director of the unlovely Romeo and Juliet at Malvern this week?
No, Olivier of the 1935 Geilgud production. Olivier goes on, almost sneeringly, "John always had a preoccupation with the beautiful and the poetic": This is certainly not shared by Unwin. He has cut the play fairly extensively removing `anything incomprehensible'.
As the Church of England did with The Book Of Common Prayer, so emptying churches of necessary mystery; and congregations. Truism it may be, but needs repeating: The music of words is more potent than the `meaning'.
The gabble, shout and bash about school - prime example here - is saying: don't worry, this isn't a sublime work of art, it's quite like EastEnders really. So, Romeo in braces, Juliet in Barbie's wardrobe, a laddish Mercutio.
A belittling process: Bellini, Gounod, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Delius, all have written Romeo and Juliet music. Here Romeo at the feast falls in love to the strains of a palm court orchestra; and this after a spirited cha-cha-cha by the assembled company.
Let's found a society for the protection of dead playwrights.
Henry Ford
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