Romeo and Juliet is a world-renowned
tragedy by
William Shakespeare concerning two young "
star-cross'd lovers" and the role played by their tragic
suicides in ending a long-running family feud. It is one of the most famous of Shakespeare's plays, one of his earliest theatrical triumphs, and is thought to be the most
archetypal love story of the
Renaissance and indeed the history of Western culture.
Romeo and Juliet was a popular play in Shakespeare's lifetime. Gary Taylor measures it as the sixth most popular of Shakespeare's plays, in the period after the death of
Marlowe and
Kyd but before the ascendancy of
Jonson during which Shakespeare was London's dominant playwright.
[5]
After the theatres re-opened in the
Restoration, Sir
William Davenant staged a 1662 production in which
Henry Harris played Romeo,
Thomas Betterton was Mercutio, and Betterton's wife
Mary Saunderson played Juliet.
[6] Thomas Otway's adaptation
The History and Fall of Caius Marius, one of the more extreme of the Restoration versions 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 plebians; Juliet/Lavina wakes from her potion before Romeo/Marius dies. Otway's version was a hit, and was acted for the next seventy years.
Theophilus Cibber mounted his own adaptation in 1744, followed by
David Garrick's in 1748. Both Cibber and Garrick used variations on Otway's innovation in the tomb scene.
[7]
In 1750 came the so-called "Battle of the Romeos," with
Spranger Barry and
Susannah Maria Arne (Mrs. Theophilus Cibber) at
Covent Garden versus
David Garrick and
George Anne Bellamy at
Drury Lane.
[8] Shakespeare's original returned to the stage in 1845 in the United States (with the sisters
Charlotte and Susan Cushman as Romeo and Juliet),
[9][10] and in 1847 in Britain (
Samuel Phelps at
Sadler's Wells).
[11]
Henry Irving's 1882 production at the
Lyceum Theatre is considered an archetype of his "pictorial" style, placing the action on elaborate sets. Irving hmself played Romeo, and
Ellen Terry played Juliet.
[12]
In one of the most notable twentieth century performances, staged by
John Gielgud at the
New Theatre in 1935, Gielgud and
Laurence Olivier played the roles of Romeo and Mercutio, exchanging roles six weeks into the run, with
Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet.
[13]
Other notable twentieth century productions include
Guthrie McClintic's 1934 Broadway staging in which
Katharine Cornell had a triumph as Juliet opposite
Basil Rathbone as Romeo and
Edith Evans (who also played the role in the
Gielgud production) as the Nurse. Cornell later revived the production with
Maurice Evans as Romeo and
Ralph Richardson as Mercutio, both making their
Broadway debuts.
Franco Zeffirelli mounted a legendary staging for the
Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 with
John Stride and
Judi Dench that served as the basis for his
1968 film.
source: wikipedia
07-07-2007, 05:54 PM
Romeo and Juliet
