Romeo And Juliet Essay

627 Words3 Pages
Arguably one of the most well known plays in history, Romeo and Juliet is a tragic and exciting tale of two young lovers’ caught in the crossfire of their feuding families. William Shakespeare uses dramatic and descriptive text to tell the story of thirteen-year-old Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague. The Montague and Capulet families have a long running feud that causes much turbulence for the city of Verona. Even in the very first scene the two sides can be found engaging in a bloody fight just for the sake of hating each other. Romeo however is not present as he is longing after the beautiful and chaste Rosaline. To get Romeo’s mind off of his lost love, Mercrutio, Romeo’s best friend, and Benvolio, his cousin, whisk the unwilling and…show more content…
For instance, the opening scene is a thrilling brawl between the Montague and Capulet families. Benvolio describes the intensity when he says, “He swung above his head and cut the winds.” This immediately brings forth large movement, swords being swung through the air, bodies whisking this way and that. To show the full action of this scene it would be immensely helpful to utilize the entire stage as the town square setting. Perhaps even creating multidimensional levels so the audience can view many duels at once and the movement of the fighting actors can carry the viewer’s eye throughout the entire set. Harnesses could even be used to help actors jump dramatically from one level to the next as they battle it out with their enemies. This would be an extremely exciting way to begin the play, drawing in audience members and preparing them for the rest of the production. Another thrilling staging option would be to reenact Mercutio’s speech in Act 1 Scene 4. Instead of the audience simply watching him recite the lines on stage, lights could dim as he begins his rant, transforming the stage into Queen Mab’s playground as she darts to and fro giving dreams to the sleeping. Lighting would play a huge roll in not only this scene but many others including when Romeo sneaks over the walls into the orchard under Juliet’s balcony. There is much talk about the moon in this scene and dim,
Open Document