Romeo and Juliet

HCMC Drama Theatre –
05-10 May, 8pm
07 May, 2pm
08 May, 11am

Hanoi Opera House –
13 May 2009, 8 pm
14 May 2009, 12 pm and 8 pm

TNT BRITAIN presents

Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare
English language performances
[ U P D A T E ] with Vietnamese subtitles!
[ U P D A T E  2 ] complete info about ticket prices now available

A special performance of Romeo and Juliet, the best known love story in the world, is coming to Vietnam. Romeo and Juliet has inspired many films, musicals and ballets but the great danger of this mythologizing is that the play becomes obscured by the Myth.

Paul Stebbing’s production aims to strip away the influence of the myth and reveal the Shakespearian original in all its glory. So what is the play not? It is not a story of urban street kids or racial opposites but “Two houses both alike in dignity”. It is not a tragedy because there is no hubris – the lovers commit no sin as every tragic hero from Oedipus to Macbeth or Willy Loman sins. So what is this play?

First of all it is a poem, it constructed like a poem. The sonnet form was wildly popular when Shakespeare wrote the play – so the sonnet runs through the text like no other  play. Romeo and Juliet’s first encounter is written as  sonnet, so is the end of the play and the form of the sonnet, reconciling opposites in a satisfying end, is part of the structure of the play as it is of all sonnets. So we take poetry into the style of performance and the visual imagery – the real conflict in the play is between powerful poetic images – Love and Death. Cupid is called upon more than any Christian figure, Death haunts the play as a real presence that will “make love” to Juliet. And Death is not just in simple opposition to Love in the great play – Death enhances Love and seals its perfection – the intense love of Romeo and Juliet could not survive ordinary daily life – “Come Death Juliet wills it so!” Cries Romeo early on in their passionate affair. We place Death and Cupid on the stage.

The play is also a comedy – it is full of jokes that most productions ignore, full of comic servants that most productions edit out. We keep them, we revel in the comic life force that Shakespeare uses as a contrast to the spiritual love of the protagonists. A lot of the comedy is earthy and sexual – Shakespeare reminds us that love is both these things. We use simple sets but complex music – real Baroque and Renaissance music sung by the performers and recorded on original Baroque instruments. Shakespeare actually has musicians speak in the play – again they are usually cut – not in our play!

Our setting is historical – so often (especially in Germany) the play is updated to today – but what sense does that make of Juliet’s father forcing her to marry his friend? And what about all the sword fights – must they really be with street knives – there is so much about fencing with swords and words in the play is seem odd to take away  the metaphor that Shakespeare so carefully worked into his great drama. And what a shame to take the play into West Side Story jeans and T shirts! Our production is set in Baroque Italy, not a real Italy but an Italy of the imagination – full of Carnival masks, commedia dell’arte, Tuscan pastel walls offset gorgeous Baroque costumes, rapiers flash, Monks chant under Cyprus trees, Dan Juan, Casanova, Vivaldi and a strong espresso are never far away…

The production has already excited a wonderful response from audiences and critics, playing to full houses across Germany and Central Europe. We have just started our 15 month tour that will take us to thirty countries on three (or even four) continents.  And why is ROMEO AND JULIET (that is the Real Romeo and Juliet we hope…) so popular – partly, we think, because in a world riven by futile violence the unbearable perfection of this story reminds us how our petty hatreds are so much less than the our potential to love.

Tickets available at: [email protected]

Phone: +0084839308579

Students and accompanying teachers 140 000VND

Further information: www.adg-europe.com

Or contact us at: [email protected]