THE HANGOVER REPORT – Simon Godwin’s elegantly succinct ROMEO AND JULIET for the National is triumphant proof that theater and cinema need not be mutually exclusive

Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley in Simon Godwin’s hybrid film/staging “Romeo and Juliet” for the National Theatre.

It’s a bit scary to see just how many things director Simon Godwin’s hybrid film/staging of Romeo and Juliet for the National Theatre – which is currently available for viewing via PBS’s invaluable Great Performances series – gets right, especially given the circumstances surrounding its creation. Instead of scrapping a planned stage production of Shakespeare’s popular play due to COVID-19, Mr. Godwin and company had the ingenuity and foresight to proceed down an alternative path. Shot in an empty theater during the pandemic over the course of 17 days, this film version of Romeo and Juliet fiercely retains its theatrical origins while charting paths only possible through cinema. In fact, the final product strikes me as one of the most exciting and consistently engrossing renditions of the tragedy I’ve encountered in any medium, precisely because it fully inhabits both the realms of theater and cinema. Its stunning success is a testament to the ability of artists and the creative process to adapt and thrive regardless of the situation at hand.

Indeed, there’s nary a lull in Mr. Godwin’s domestic, elegantly succinct contemporary staging, which is chock full of inspired choices, beginning with its meta-theatrical framework. The play commences with the company of actors on the bare stage of the Lyttleton Theatre in early rehearsals for a production of Romeo and Juliet. As they increasingly get involved in the machinations of the play, scenes begin to take on a more “fully staged” quality, eventually blurring the boundary between reality and Shakespeare’s world. As the star-crossed lovers, Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley are attractive and smartly avoid the tendency to overact, emphasizing truth over histrionics. Lady Capulet, played to chilly perfection by Tamsin Greig, takes more of a dominant role in the play (hijacking a good number of lines originally allotted to Lord Capulet). There’s also a newly inserted romantic relationship between Mercutio and Benvolio (Fisayo Akinade and Shubham Saraf, both compelling and distinctive), which heightens the tragedy of Mercutio’s slaying at the hands of Tybalt (a fiery David Judge, also spot on). The rest of the deluxe cast – which includes the likes of Adrian Lester, Lucian Msamati, and Deborah Findlay – are equally superb.

Despite the introduction of some bold new textures, the production hardly registers as an alienating radical interpretation; both traditionalists and more adventurous playgoers will find something to captivate them here. And what’s astonishing is that for all the sublime theatricality of the staging (which, for the film, has been expanded beyond the confines of the stage, spilling into the wings and other previously untapped spaces in the National’s sprawling complex), this Romeo and Juliet makes for an even better film. Viewing its meta-theatrics through the lens of a camera makes for fascinatingly layered cinema, particularly with the expert incorporation of close-ups and cross-cutting. Perhaps most powerfully, these filmic techniques are used to collapse time in key moments, not only foreshadowing the story’s tragic end but also never losing sight of the vibrancy of the love that sets the play’s wheels in motion. In one fell swoop, Mr. Godwin’s ad hoc Romeo and Juliet ends up representing the very best aspects of both theater and cinema, triumphantly proving that they need not be mutually exclusive.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

ROMEO AND JULIET
Theater / Film
National Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes
Available on PBS through May 21

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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