Globe’s ‘Romeo And Juliet’ Is Not Just About Star-Crossed Lovers

Speaker 1: 00:00 This weekend, the old globe theater opens its production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet KPBS arts reporter Beth, how commando speaks with artistic director Barry Edelstein about how to tackle one of the Bard's most popular plays and still find new shadings. Speaker 2: 00:16 So you're going to be directing Romeo and Juliet this summer for the first time. The hamlet you did recently was the first professional directing that you had done of that, these are two of kind of Shakespeare's standards. What is it that maybe has taken you so long to decide to tackle them? Speaker 3: 00:34 Well, a couple of things. I, I, first of all, I've had an abiding interest in the minor Shakespeare's. I've done a lot of them because I thought, I know the ones that I know, I know a midsummer night's dream. I Know Hamlet, I know King Lear. I want to do the ones that I don't know anything about. And so I kind of gravitated to time and of Athens and the winter's tale and assembling and some of the really sort of strange outliers that people haven't even necessarily heard of. But the second reason is that I can't really direct one of these plays unless I feel some kind of personal emotional connection to them. Otherwise it's just a job. When my father passed away a few years ago, may he rest in peace. Hamlet was very much on my mind, uh, as the sort of great statement in Western literature about what happens to a son when his father dies. Speaker 3: 01:22 And the play just rushed into my mind when my father passed away and it kind of told me I need to work on this play Romeo and Juliet, I've been thinking an enormous amount about the thing that the chorus says at the very, very beginning of the play. This guy comes out, or a person or a woman or I don't even know how I'm going to do it yet. This speech happens that says there's these two great households and they're having a feud. And the only thing that's going to end this few does the deaths of their own children. And that's the first thing that you learn is, oh my God, there's going to be children who die because of this family feud. And it made me think about the whole question of the legacy that we grownups leave for our children in terms of the politics of our world, in terms of the climate of our world, in terms of the culture that we build that gets transmitted to our children. Shakespeare's actively asking the question, how do the choices that grownups make come home to roost a generation later in the lives of their children? And it's been much on my mind as I've watched my own young children grow up and I thought Romeo and Juliet is a great opportunity to for me to think about that and explore that a little bit Speaker 2: 02:31 now with a player like Romeo and Juliet that has been filmed repeatedly gets performed a lot and kind of how do you tackle that? Speaker 3: 02:40 It's a, it's a great question and it's something I've been thinking about a lot. Yes, the place so familiar. I mean I've seen great productions of Romeo and Juliet that make me think, well what do I have to add? Hey, that's perfect. That was perfect version of that play. Perfect production. Why on earth would I come along and try to add something new. But that's the great thing about the theater is that these enduring works survive and ask for yet another group of artists to come together and grapple with them. And the joy of going to see Romeo and Juliet yet one more time, is to see what this particular group of individuals at this particular moment are going to find in it. Now, as a guy whose job is to think, how am I going to do that balcony scene? The fact that I've seen it 15 times is a challenge because you think, well, I know the way one is supposed to do it. Speaker 3: 03:30 So one trap is to say I must do something original. Because if it's not original, then it's somehow no good. And you know, sometimes the tried and true method is the best thing to do even though you've seen it 15 times, you've seen it that way because it works. So that's one trap to be avoided. The other trap to be avoided, just to copy some other artists' work without particularly delving into it in a personal way. But on the other hand, the fun about Romeo and Juliet is just to say, look, there are definitive versions out there. My job is to come in now with this particular group of people who are incredibly talented and just see what it is we think we can find and trust that it will resonate with audiences in its own new way. And what do you feel that you're particularly connecting with in, in terms of some of the famous speeches and monologues in this? Speaker 3: 04:18 Well, again, it comes back to this idea of the choices that parents make settling in the lives of their offspring in sometimes toxic ways. That's what I actually think the play is about. That's what I think Shakespeare's trying to tease out. What I've often found in my work in Shakespeare is that there's some crazy little corner of the play that's not celebrated and not famous at all. That reveals itself to me and uh, and, and reveals a, a kind of central concern of the piece. And there's this wonderful scene. I mean, spoiler alert, right? They, they die at the end. Romeo and Juliet, sorry about that. Folks who are listening. Um, so, and the way they die as this complicated thing, Romeo and Juliet are, are the children of rival families and they're not supposed to fall in love, but they do. And so there's a Fryer who is involved, uh, a man of the cloth. Speaker 3: 05:08 And he advises these two young lovers on how to be together in the face of their parents' opposition. And he hatches this crazy plan that involves a sleeping potion. They think she's dead. They don't know that it's a secret sleeping potion from which she's going to wake up. The fryer comes to the House and the family is screaming keening over the loss of their daughter. The fryer knows she's not dead because it's his secret sleeping potion that is responsible for it. And he begins to berate them for the way that they raised their daughter, screams at them. All they wanted was for her to marry a rich guy. All they cared about was her reputation. All they cared about was her promotion, this amazing speech. And you think, I don't know how a pastor does that to a family who's in morning, you know, and it's such an odd detail that this fryer who has been responsible for the whole situation that we're watching takes advantage of the opportunity to make a political point to these parents even when he knows that he's the one responsible for the situation. Speaker 3: 06:10 And I n actually that's one of those moments you go, oh, that's what the play is about. This strange little detail. Why is this guy doing this? The reveals the entire kind of, um, inner structure and life of the piece. And it's interesting you point to that because I believe that's the same that's often cut out. It is often cut out because it's so crazy. It's such a strange, wonderful detail this furious for Roche, this attack on the values by which the parents live their lives. I'm looking forward to both the summer Shakespeare plays and uh, thanks for talking with me. It's always a pleasure to talk Shakespeare with you. Bet. Thanks. Speaker 1: 06:46 That was Beth Armando speaking with the globe's artistic director, Barry Edelstein, Romeo and Juliet opens this weekend. And runs through September 15th at the low Davies Festival stage.