Director’s notes

Many of you attending this performance today are already aware that Juliet and Romeo die at the end of the play. And if you didn’t know that going into the show, you will find out within the first few lines: “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”. What opportunity is created when staging such a well-known play that reveals its famous ending before the audience has even gotten settled in? This question led me towards a telling of the story that begins at the end. We find Juliet in the tomb, awakening from a poisoned stupor, only to discover that her secret plan has gone horribly awry. She then reassembles the events that led her to this moment, so we are seeing all the action through her eyes – moments she remembers and incidents she would have heard about. The crypt and the things that fill it are the backdrop for her imaginings.

experiencing this familiar story from Juliet’s perspective puts some things into sharper focus – like her relationship with her family – and asks us to consider what it would be like to be a young woman in this society. We broaden the scope of who-plays-what on stage in the representation of love in many forms: between a parent and their child, between childhood friends, between a mentor and a pupil, between a young woman and her nurse and, of course, between two young people who just met. The original script is still our map, but sometimes we will take a different path to get where the story is going. I am grateful to work alongside this group of artists, administrators and technicians in this season that sees us back in the tents after a long absence. Some of the finest actors in Canada work at Bard on the Beach and this production intentionally puts the focus on the versatility of the performers. Live singing and overt theatricality mark this return to the stage. The past few years of living under the shadow of death make us strange bedfellows with the characters in this play. We know how their story ends, and in a way, we know how all our stories will end. The way we get there is where the mystery begins. Anita Rochon, Director | April 2022

Set design inspiration for the crypt in Romeo and Juliet courtesy of Set Designer Pam Johnson

Preliminary set design by Pam Johnson

ABOuT AnITA ROCHOn

Anita is returning to Bard on the Beach after directing Cymbeline in 2014. She co-artistic directs The Chop in Vancouver with emelia Symington Fedy, a company that produces original work and tours nationally and internationally. Anita has directed at the Shaw Festival, electric Company Theatre, Theatre Replacement, Belfry Theatre, Globe Theatre and Vancouver Opera. She is a recipient of the Ray Michal Prize, the Siminovitch Protégé prize and a Mayor’s Arts Award.