There are some plays that are so well known, so deeply embedded into the human cultural consciousness, that they are effectively inescapable. Romeo and Juliet is on that list. What often plagues this play is a series of unfortunate, but easy to make, misunderstandings such as: that the characters of Romeo and Juliet are stupid, or that they aren’t really in love, etc.
Suffice it to say, that when the play is taught, almost never can the enormous emotional complexity these characters face in this play be fully explored or understood all at once - not because of a failure of the teachers or students, but because of the immensity of the power of the play itself.
This play is about people in love: romantic love, yes, but also familial love, love of friends; loyalty to lovers, friends, and family.
We speak often about the beautiful language in this play, and undoubtedly, it is Mr. Shakespeare in excellent writing form, but honestly, to me as an educator and director, the language is secondary to the characters - after all, it is the characters who speak the language, and learning to explore and understand these fictional people who speak these words - that's the real trick to bringing this play to life. It is not enough to just say the lines in a pretty way - if we are to tell the story, then we must tell it from a place of deep knowledge and understanding and empathy.
There's hardly a character in this play whom we the audience cannot find empathy for, at one point or another. I don't think that's an accident on Bill's part. He wrote people first and foremost - human beings, whose irrational, wild, intellectual, passionate existences he found so incredibly fascinating that he had to capture it and put it on stage.
It's so frightfully easy to read or watch this play as an audience member and cast judgment on these characters - we all know those judgmental thoughts - we've either said them or heard others say them; I need not list them here.
Something that's important to remember, though, is that we all make rash decisions. There's not a person reading this who hasn't, on an impulse, done something that had unforeseen negative consequences. There's not a person reading this who hasn't shot their mouth off at the wrong person at the wrong time. There's not a person reading this who hasn't yearned to feel connected to someone else (romantically or otherwise) and taken actions to try and make that yearning a reality.
Maybe the reason why some of us judge this play so harshly isn't because the characters are unrealistic - perhaps it is because they are entirely too realistic for our modern-day sense of comfort.
Importantly though, the play is also a warning - a warning to young people, yes, but moreover a warning to adults. It is, after all, the “adults” who create the circumstances in which these two young people feel so overwhelmed and trapped, so isolated and lonely and incapable of seeing a way forward, that they take their own lives.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is not filled with romance and beauty because of their deaths by suicide - the story is filled with romance and beauty because of their love.
Shakespeare calls them “star-crossed” - this isn’t a romantic term, it’s prophetic. To be star-crossed means to be destined to be thwarted, to be ill-fated. The question that audiences should wonder all the time though is: is it truly some almighty destiny? Or are the stars something actually much more earthbound - are they ill-fated due to the actions of the people in their lives?
Or is there a difference?
