Drama at Romeo and Juliet

Juliet getting into the dramatic swing of things

As if the plot of Romeo and Juliet wasn't dramatic enough already, yesterday's school matinee performance was full of extra drama, starting with a very sick Romeo who very nearly did not make it on stage (he did though, and lasted the whole performance - no mean feat!). Then they got a little over-enthusiastic with the fake blood, which was sprayed not only all over the stage but over a fair proportion of the groundlings too. One boy had his crisp white school shirt covered in it (wonder how he explained that to his mother...). Then another schoolboy, apparently prompted by the gory happenings on stage, went into an epileptic fit and had to be carried away in an ambulance!

Yesterday I was stationed on the middle gallery, which, although safe from spraying blood, is a good deal more restricted in view than the yard or lower gallery:

The view would have been better from the seats (I was standing at the back of the gallery, behind all the seating). They have tried to ensure that the scaffolding doesn't run across in front of the seated sightline, but I still think you get a much better view (and much more involved with the action) from the yard. From the galleries you miss any action that goes on directly underneath (the actors make several entrances and exits through the groundlings in the yard) as well as anything happening directly above you (at one point in the play the Prince speaks from one of the bays in the upper gallery).

The school children yesterday were even more appreciative than those at the performance I saw a few weeks ago. This time, however, the loudest cheers were reserved not for Romeo and Juliet's kiss, but for the entrance of a shirtless Mercutio lusting for blood!

"Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved."