Design Notes on Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a lyric tragedy and this is key to its interpreting. The stagecraft must be simple and sufficient.
There is a sense of swiftness about Romeo and Juliet, distinguished by its alternate contrasts in scene and character. After the intense, jarring experience of the fight and the Prince’s judgment, we see Romeo, pining, fantastical and totally self-absorbed. Directly following this indulgent, and somewhat morbid wordplay with Benvolio, comes Capulet and Paris, “the sugary tyrant and the man of wax, matchmaking!” (Granville Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare). Benvolio then bets Romeo that he will see another beauty and fall for her, making Rosaline pale. Followed by that interlude, we meet Juliet when she is being told, in effect, that she is to enter into an arranged marriage with Paris.
After the raucous appearance of the maskers and Mercutio’s never-ending talk of Queen Mab, the dance and Tybalt’s ranting, we are brought as to an altar to witness the quiet and profound beauty of the meeting of Romeo and Juliet. Granville Barker poetically writes, “There is something sacramental about their meeting—shy and grave and sweet—it is a marriage made already… It is this fact that will deepen the tragedy when we remember the innocence of its beginning” (Prefaces to Shakespeare).
Once Tybalt is dead there is not a moment to breathe; the action has such a pace. It is as if each scene is competing with the next in intensity. The desperation of Romeo and Juliet, Capulet creating confusion, the Friar’s foolishness and the betrayal of the Nurse all work together to create a frenetic atmosphere. The entire action is injected with a haste and violence and savagery with no respite. “ It becomes a dervish—whirling of words” (Granville Barker).
The swift pace of Romeo and Juliet demands a fluid set that will free the action to move with its intrinsic haste. However, we are faced with a unique challenge because we perform in repertory. Therefore, our set has to work for both plays in production. Fortunately, Pericles also requires quick movement between time and place.
Creating a Set for Both Pericles and Romeo and Juliet
We are working to create an iconic design that reveals the heart of the plays, so that what emerges visually is able to release the energy of each story. Our goals are to design a set that is very beautiful, exhibits exquisite craftsmanship, minimal, not realistic but a visible metaphor. This is especially imperative in Pericles because we have to create five or more distinct locations, and we cannot be hampered by set pieces that suggest one distinct place. The movement has to be accomplished through lights, props and costumes.
The following entries are notes from our first design meetings in the Spring of 2007
Romeo and Juliet
The effects of the bed, balcony and tomb are simple and not intrusive. There must be no heavy changing of scenery. If we say a bench is a tomb, it is. If we want a swag of curtains hanging aloft to become the bed, they do.
Verona
* A beautiful city that is poisoned by a long-time war.
* Two lovers escape the vice like grip of their parents by believing in their own
authentic experience.
* When we find a heart as passionate as our own, it empowers us and frees us to do
anything.
* The play takes place during the time of the Medicis—Verona in the 1500's. This is
not literal; the effect must be timeless.
Pericles
In Pericles our focus is on “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” The images we want to create depict the sea of troubles—being swept from one disaster to the next and the subsequent effects of what happens to people when events occur that are out of their control. Pericles is a kind of Greco/Elizabethan fairytale and the design must reflect that.
Design Inspirations from Art: Line, Color, Texture and Light
* Frescoes- worn and aged* Temple of Apollo Greece- shape and form
* The Victory of Samothrace
Architecture/Sculpture:
* Archways of Florentine churches (i.e. Santa Maria Novella)
* Basilica di Francesco
* San Lorenzo- Florence
* Villa dei Misteri- Pompeii
* Bistolfi
* Carl Andre
Paintings:
* Caravaggio
* Georges De La Tour
* Vermeer
The action needs to flow with absolute clarity in both plays. Maybe we will use wood; there is something very honest about it. It could be the simplest of sets with no special effects.
Further design notes from September 2007.
It is of extreme importance that the scenes seamlessly go from one to the other. The worlds of the plays should open out to us so that characters seem to orbit around each other (especially in Pericles) with one scene melting or bleeding into the other.
For Pericles the gorgeous simplicity of the fairy tale wraps around the complex questions of human nature. A vast fluid space where characters are grouped like eddies and tides in a vast sea.
In Romeo and Juliet there may be a series of illuminating tableaus that accompany the plot, forming and dissolving, forming and dissolving. Thus, creating a visible, urgent manifestation of the link between action and consequence, instead of one scene pouring into another, one scene bleeds sharply into another.