This paper analyzes the performance of the play, “Romeo and Juliet.” William Shakespeare wrote the play, and it was first published in 1597. The play is about two teenagers, (Romeo and Juliet), who fall in love, but their fate is determined from the beginning because of the feuds between their families (Martin & Jacobus, 2018). The novelty of love between the two young teenagers, Romeo and Juliet, lights the play with its brightness. The performance is riddled with the darkness of hatred and selfishness manifested by the families of the young lovers. The s ends tragically, with violence and death having to pay for the feuds between the two families.
The setting of the play is generally modern, creative, and adaptive. The staging allows things to happen rapidly. The lighting and the gauze are used to merge scenes and to present multiple story scenes happening at the same time. Mostly, the performance matches the written version of the play, except for the cross-cutting of scenes together. For example, at the Capulet’s party, several scenes take place concurrently, with the background party seen upstage, and the staffs are dashing around with their drinks, while the drunken nurse staggers around. At the same time, cousin Tybalt is roaming outside. This kind of setting is meant to make the performance of the written play more realistic and more believable to the audience.
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The performance depicts a sympathetic tone, reflecting on the tragic end of two young lovers. In the play, sex and death are inseparable (Martin & Jacobus, 2018). Romeo and Juliet are seen to be carried away by sexual desires to death. An exceptionally sympathetic situation is how Juliet’s openness to sex despite her tender age. The play seems to suggest that sex is a natural, inevitable, and acceptable way of life, regardless of age. Furthermore, Mercutio is seen indulging in a merely sexual wordplay in almost all his speeches. For example, the line, “I’ll take him down, an’ he were lustier than he is, and twenty such jacks” (Shakespeare, 2015, 2.4.155), passes a secondary sexual message, and no one seems to care. Besides, the indifferent mood of the characters evokes sympathy with the young lovers, who are forced to break valuable social norms to fulfill their insatiable desires. The play also depicts a non-judgmental tone. The play somewhat presumes an indifferent attitude towards the characters’ indulgence in sexual desires. The performance is also overly celebratory to the love story between Juliet and Romeo, blatantly neglecting valuable norms in society.
The most outstanding parts of the performance are those associated with love between Romeo and Juliet. This is because a love relationship represents normal and acceptable facts of life, even with contemporary society. It is usual for people to fall in love and to develop their love. The most outstanding details through the performance are how feuds, disloyalty, and selfishness dim the fire of love between two young lovers, and how the disputes must be resolved with violence and death.
The performance generally gives me a feeling of pain. While love and sex are prevalent at the start of the play, the tone of the performance highly criticizes violence and death, themes that characterized the end of the play. The story ends with Romeo and Juliet married in death. The tragic ending of the play gives me mixed feelings; sympathy, anger, and pain. The primary lesson that I learn from the story is that emotions should not be confused with reality, as they are highly unpredictable, and they can be misleading.
References
Martin, F. D., & Jacobus, L. A. (2018). The humanities through the arts . New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Shakespeare, W. (2015). Romeo and Juliet 1597 . Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
