noooo why
So Branagh is doing Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale at the Garrick Theatre in London, alongside Terrence Rattigan's Harlequinade, which is apparently a play about a company that tries to put on Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale. I like the idea of this grouping, and a lot of the casting sounds really amazing (Dame Judi Dench as Paulina! Michael Pennington as Antigonus!) or intriguing (Jessie Buckley as Perdita! Her Miranda for the Globe had a lot of potential). But then there's this weird thing:
Reuniting the stars of his celebrated film of Cinderella, Kenneth Branagh directs Richard Madden and Lily James as Romeo and Juliet and Derek Jacobi as Mercutio, in Shakespeareʼs heartbreaking tale of forbidden love.
http://www.branaghtheatre.com/romeo-and-juliet/index.php
I just - no. 1) Mercutio is not an elderly man; that's just creepy and weird. (I know productions have done middle-aged Mercutios, but…come on, man, why is this old dude trying to fight Tybalt?) 2) This (casting a way more famous actor) looks like exactly the kind of move people make when they want to make Mercutio more important than the lovers, and I hate that: there isn't another Shakespeare tragedy where people are constantly trying to downplay the presence and importance of the title characters, but of course Romeo and Juliet are just stupid teenagers, and Shakespeare really cared about Mercutio. Double plus ugh. And 3)…I don't actually like Derek Jacobi doing Shakespeare all that much? Of course I respect his talent, and I recognize that this is totally my problem, and probably my bad taste, rather than an objective judgment, but his performances just bounce off of me and leave me cold.
Anyway. I have no particular feelings about Lily James, since I've only seen her in Downton Abbey, or Richard Madden, since I don't watch Game of Thrones (although I liked him in the Birdsong miniseries - but I didn't watch it very carefully). Apparently Richard Madden played Romeo in the Globe's touring production of R&J back in 2007, though - and his Adopt an Actor blog posts are up on the website:
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/adopt-an-actor/archive/romeo-played-by-richard-madden
So that could be interesting: it's rare that an actor gets to take a second crack at playing Romeo professionally because he's such a young character. (The same is true of Juliet.) But now I'm all unnecessarily crabby about a production I won't ever get to see (unless perhaps they film it).
Reuniting the stars of his celebrated film of Cinderella, Kenneth Branagh directs Richard Madden and Lily James as Romeo and Juliet and Derek Jacobi as Mercutio, in Shakespeareʼs heartbreaking tale of forbidden love.
http://www.branaghtheatre.com/romeo-and-juliet/index.php
I just - no. 1) Mercutio is not an elderly man; that's just creepy and weird. (I know productions have done middle-aged Mercutios, but…come on, man, why is this old dude trying to fight Tybalt?) 2) This (casting a way more famous actor) looks like exactly the kind of move people make when they want to make Mercutio more important than the lovers, and I hate that: there isn't another Shakespeare tragedy where people are constantly trying to downplay the presence and importance of the title characters, but of course Romeo and Juliet are just stupid teenagers, and Shakespeare really cared about Mercutio. Double plus ugh. And 3)…I don't actually like Derek Jacobi doing Shakespeare all that much? Of course I respect his talent, and I recognize that this is totally my problem, and probably my bad taste, rather than an objective judgment, but his performances just bounce off of me and leave me cold.
Anyway. I have no particular feelings about Lily James, since I've only seen her in Downton Abbey, or Richard Madden, since I don't watch Game of Thrones (although I liked him in the Birdsong miniseries - but I didn't watch it very carefully). Apparently Richard Madden played Romeo in the Globe's touring production of R&J back in 2007, though - and his Adopt an Actor blog posts are up on the website:
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/adopt-an-actor/archive/romeo-played-by-richard-madden
So that could be interesting: it's rare that an actor gets to take a second crack at playing Romeo professionally because he's such a young character. (The same is true of Juliet.) But now I'm all unnecessarily crabby about a production I won't ever get to see (unless perhaps they film it).