The Globe Theatre has had a lot of bad press recently. Their recently appointed Artistic Director, Emma Rice, announced she was leaving the organisation after just a year. No one knows exactly what happened but Rice introduced stage lighting and amplified sound to the venue which had traditionally prided itself on presenting plays in a way that was as close to Elizabethan theatre conditions as possible. The general opinion seems to be that the venue's board of directors objected to this and Rice's position became impossible leading to her resignation. To be brutally honest if Emma Rice wasn't fired for this she would have been fired for allowing this self-conscious and unnecessarily contentious Romeo and Juliet, as directed by Daniel Kramer, out of the rehearsal room and in front of the paying public. Too harsh? Let me see if I can convey the sheer awfulness of it to you.
Above the stage hang nuclear missiles (I think) which have apparently ripped a hole in the upper stage level. Beneath this sinister clowns dressed in black and white-face appear, lit by ugly and conventional stage lightings, whilst amplified sound booms out. The clowns gave birth to two coffins and then start dancing to club music. It's as if Kramer and Rice are sticking two fingers up at anyone who objected to bringing artificial light and sound into the building by using them in as ugly and clumsy a way as possible. You'd think at least the mics would allow the actors to bring subtlety to their performance. Nope. Kramer directs them to yell everything and employ clumsy mime to emphasise anything sexual to the point where they are literally humping the on stage columns.
All credit to the actors for going along with it. I imagine they're very good in other circumstances, the three I've directed definitely are. How no one pointed out how bad this production was in rehearsals will remain one of theatre's great mysteries. I'm not going to embarrass them by name checking a single one of them because I seriously hope they'll be able put this horror story of a project behind them as soon as possible.
Poor Romeo and Juliet are at least ten years too old and are encouraged to copy teenage swagger and sarcasm but without any of the underlying vulnerability. The play becomes about adults pretending to be young whilst never being given the chance to bring any subtlety or nuance to the thankless task.
But oh, if that were the only issue. It's like looking at a road accident. You want to look away but somehow the horror of what's in front of you pulls you back. Murder is committed with a plastic gun and the actors shouting bang. Capulet sings Y.M.C.A by the Village People whilst dressed as Godzilla at a fancy dress ball where the lovers first meet. Flowers are banked up along the front of the stage so the groundlings can't see the climactic action, Tybalt is regularly led around the stage in an S&M harness and a fur coat as if he were a pitbull - except with a playboy bunny tail. What's more the text is chopped up so that two scenes can be played at once contrasting the separate journeys of the lovers. I'm all for that but it's so ineptly executed that it muddles the plot not clarifies it. The wilful crimes against Shakespeare keep coming, scene after scene after scene. You begin to wonder why the director signed up if he's so little respect for the play's integrity.
The weird thing is that, despite its pointless excesses which rob the play of any poignancy, the production is undeniably entertaining and I'm actually conflicted over what star rating to give it. 1 star seems appropriate but the worst thing theatre can be is boring and it's absolutely not that. In fact I think the ghastly memory of tonight will stay vividly with me for the rest of my life.
I really don't like writing bad reviews. I know all too well the heartache and hard work that goes into making a piece of theatre and I'm very aware that just because I don't like something it's no reason to deter someone else who might enjoy it but on this occasion I really struggle to think of anyone who'd enjoy this revival of Christopher Hampton's desperately dated and unfunny comedy, played ineptly by woefully, inexperienced and ill equipped performers.