Juliet

Today I'm thinking about Juliet.

(Yeah, that's her)

The above photo is of a poster of R&J for a production of the play that I saw at the Satirikon in Moscow. The production concept was an amusement park on the sun--as many of my friends who saw it, affectionately (and not so affectionately) pointed out repeatedly. 

The set was broad and had a huge half-skate bowl in the center. It had ramps to stage right and left, and the gentlemen entered on BMX bikes riding up and through the bowl and around the stage. 

All this is cool icing, but Juliet is what I wanted to talk about.

The Juliet that I used to be familiar with and who I am sick of seeing is naive ingenue Juliet

(Sorry Olivia Hussey)

Even: 

(Claire Danes... lovely as she is)

I am sick to death of the BLANK SLATE JULIET. 

You know this Juliet. She is pure and unsullied. Her forehead is smooth. Her eyes are wide. She is beautiful and smooth and we know nothing about her except that she is young, nubile, and ripe for love. 

She is the perfect blank slate. 

I don't have anything against this Juliet. I played Juliet once and I'm fairly convinced that, aside from being a particularly joyful Juliet, I played in this vein. It's definitely a step up from dead Juliet. 

But the fundamental problem I have with the blank slate is that she's boring!

Why do you love her Romeo? How is she better than Rosaline except that she's available (if just)? Is she just a convenient way to both piss of your family and get some tail? Are you actually shallow enough to get married to your enemy just cause she's gorgeous and has wide lovely eyes?

It's problematic because not only does it make Romeo look like a douche who doesn't really care about anything but being in love, but it also turns Juliet into a simple object. Both characters quickly lose both their appeal and their individuality--Of course, everyone hates R&J. Of course, everyone thinks they're the epitome of stupid teenagers. 

If it's a blank slate and a boy taking advantage of her, two kids who kill themselves in order not to live without each other, yes, it starts to look like a stupid story.

The question is: Why do they fall in love?

The first time that I began to think it might be more than just stupid empty headed characters was at an audition in New York. I was doing a callback for Columbia's MFA program and Kristin Linklater asked us to pair off and do the Palm to palm sonnet. She was really specific about what needed to be included in the scene, but what she said that really got to me was that Romeo and Juliet share this sonnet. They complete the lines in perfect meter and rhyme together. This communicates poetically that they are on the same page mentally. 

Ex: He tells a really obscure joke and she not only gets it, she adds to it. They go back and forth and realize they really get each other. 

Here's the sonnet:

Romeo:Juliet:

If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again. You kiss by the book.

Anyway, returning to the personality theme. I realized that there could be, should be, personality to both characters, but I didn't realize how much until I saw the production at the Satirikon featured in the poster at the top.

In this Russian production, Juliet entered in her first scene running across the top of the set upstage while Lady Cap and the Nurse called for her from down center. She was running in overalls and carrying a rifle that she was trying to shoot something with off-stage. Then the Nurse and Lady Cap have to wrestle her into a dress for the dance. Literally wrestle. At the dance, instead of seeing her in the middle of some demure dance with Paris (as is often the case) Romeo sees Juliet wrestling other party guests for the entertainment and when he is thrown in the ring to "dance" with her, she soundly beats the crap out of him!

I was fabulously floored.

When they do the sonnet, Juliet actually leaves then returns to kiss him. Then once she kisses him, she's not sure if she likes it and she runs off... stops turns around thinks about it then sprints back and jumps him, and begins to kiss the crap out of him.

She was such a live wire that it was no wonder that Romeo was swept away with her. No blank slate here. Juliet was a juggernaut! All this without adding lines or extra scenes but rather just letting the character be more than a blank slate. 

May we never make that mistake again. I implore you, if you're going to do this play. Juliet doesn't have to be into guns, but for godsake would you please let her have a personality!

For more awesome photos of this production: check out this webpage.