ADAPTING SHAKESPEARE FOR THE LYRIC

Romeo and Juliet is a play renowned for the striking sadness of its love story and the haunting beauty of many of its lines. The poetic elements are so strong that, when Romeo and Juliet first meet, their words form a sonnet, a sure sign of how beautifully connected they are to one another. Our text for the Lyric Theatre production retains the beauty and majesty of Shakespeare’s words performed in a modern setting.

In order to produce a Shakespeare script suitable for our setting (under the warmth of a modern Veronese summer sky), we began by cutting the play down to just over half its original length, retaining the bare minimum needed for clarity and plot. Using that as the initial foundation, I worked in close discussion with the director, Philip Crawford, to add back further aspects of the play, line by line, word by word. We wanted a script that would tell this story in a way that appealed to audiences of all ages, from secondary school onwards.

The relentlessness of the action seems particularly foregrounded in our version: the play begins on a Sunday and ends the following Thursday morning. In that time, far too much happens that cannot be undone.

It is important to note that our Romeo and Juliet are older than the young teenagers of the original text; our Romeo and Juliet are in their late teens/early twenties. There are a few minor changes dictated by the practicalities of a smaller than original cast and you will also see that several actors are playing several roles. Our Prince is a powerful woman, who is trying to maintain her authority in a Verona changed utterly by these feuding families. And Romeo and Juliet’s parents are also characters in whom you might see change. Lady Montague is a single parent whose love for her son is fierce and deep; Lord and Lady Capulet have switched some lines to offer a more modern parenting perspective than the traditional one in the original text.

Such changes aside, the play is now notably shorter than the original, but, as you will see, Shakespeare’s words and their poignancy remain – every bit as powerfully today as they did when he wrote them over four centuries ago.

Anne Bailie Script Editor