The incredible Romeo and he is... black

by Gwen HEART From the Globe, Bankside, London

Sitting out in the open with the sky for a roof, basking in the warmth of the morning sun, the Globe fuses something evergreen. In spite of the history, the ageing of the oak, this performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' is a burst of new energy and a new beginning. This is a great reminder of the younger England and a great refresher of the present one. Highlighting this effect, I see this robust, bouncy young black Romeo, stealing every heart as he appears in the open stage. It is the Bard's greatest play. It is about the exuberance and exhilaration of two young hearts and about the purity of young love.

Romeo, the passionate lover who in grief must not fear. This is gorgeously portrayed by Adetomiwi Edun who even put Lawrence Olivier to the background or for that matter, Leslie Howard who had been Romeos generations apart. Edun along with Ellie Kendrik as Juliet, makes the whole play very poignant and real. This tragedy is for youth of today as they see Romeo and Juliet in a different perspective.

Staging a black Romeo is spectacular and thrilling and as I gaze around the crowds, they are all excited and spellbound. Never was a Romeo like this... tall, strapping and teasingly handsome. And Juliet, she comes from the right latitude and she needs far more experience, experiments and though many an actress failed but not today's Kendrick. With her innocent looks, she fits the role as the 13-year-old Juliet who would have been 14 on Lammas Eve, soon after her death. Romeo famously describes Juliet's lips as 'blushing pilgrims' when they fall in love at first sight. And here, we find Shakespeare using literary form to set the scene. Would the playwright ever have imagined that centuries later, two lovely young lovers such as Adetomiwa and Ellie Kendrick would passionately arouse his characters in his own Globe? (though reconstructed)

The play powerfully conveys the reckless spirit of vitality, the main reason being that Edun and Kendrick brings a freshness and vivacity to their parts. To me this is the most absorbing live theatrical experience and worth the distance I had to tread on foot.

The events of Romeo and Juliet that unfold before my eyes, are driven forward for incomprehension of the older generation for the young. In myth and fiction, the young lovers exist in a limited phase and are on the verge of adult commitment of sex and society. Today's play adds scenes and shorter passages to the version of the story and somehow complicate their relationships with their families. They simulates the experience of adolescence and the intense changing passions which often generate defiance against the adult world.

In this opening scene, more than half the dialogue explains Romeo's state of mind. Romeo isolates himself and is restless and uncommunicative, seeking an ambience to suit his mood. Benvolio not only shares some of Romeo's feelings but recognises the correspondence. Yet, he cannot identify Romeo's problems which is an obvious case of unsettled hormones. He is determined to help Romeo find the cause. In scene four, Romeo is engulfed in the power of imagination and expresses his anger and his sexual fantasies. Between this episode and the beginning on the third act, Mercutio and Benvolio intrude on the love story, accentuating Romeo's growing distance from their social life. After the explosive violence that kills Mercutio, Benvolio too disappears from the play which leaves Romeo to fend for himself. He engages himself primarily with old characters who expedite his fate.

Adding two scenes to earlier versions that position the character of the young Capulet, the play introduces Juliet. When she appears in the third scene, she has very little to speak hinting at the complexities to come but she is well defined in social terms. The play conceals her mind and announces her age, status as an only child and heir. The play also reveals the total dependency of her parents in terms of her betrothal.

I do not understand Shakespeare's logic in rushing the innocent tender Juliet into a marriage that early.

The play makes adjustments to the Capulet family while Romeo languish in his burning love for Juliet. The Montagues and Capulets are well positioned in society and wealth but arch rivals. The adolescence in Verona ignites their hatred to each other. The family obduracy represents the lovers' face and fate. As the play progresses a key to the relationship between generations exchange between Romeo and Friar Laurence.

The dialogue rendering by Romeo is both spectacular and passionate. Its feeling simply breeze on all of us. Its effects engulf all of us. The young Edun speaks out like a veteran, nay like a Thespian. He carries the whole play upon his shoulders. The beautiful young Hendrick is his inspiration.

The movement of time in hours or years radiate through poetry in the play while turning the core of the tragedy.

The scene at the vault is both touching and heart-rendering. There is not a sigh, and as the weather too was watching this, down comes a drizzle of dew. Though all of us are in the open, no one stirs. Such is the poignant impact. Julia kills herself and the scene ends, a thunder of clapping as though the heavens open up, renders the air. At the end what strikes me most is the fact that Friar Laurence bears a heavy responsibility for the fate of the lovers but the time's other agent is the play. The nurse also has a major part. The expansion of her character is one of Shakespeare's principal addition and tells us all that the Nurse and Friar is the brevity of our lives, one bringing us into the world and the other seeing us out.

Biographies

Adetomiwa Edun (Romeo) was trained at RADA. His theatre credits include Macbeth by the National Theatre. Proper Clever by the Liverpool Play House. In Time, Liquid Gold, and Pandora's Box by Tiata Fahodzi/Almeida Theatre.

Tom Stuart (Paris) was Trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. His previous credits at The Globe are Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra. Other theatre credits include Edward 11 by BAC, Absolute Beginners by Lyric, Hammersmith, Love Lear by Greenwich Playhouse. He has also acted in films that include The Calling, Atonement, A Good Year and Gype. Television credits include Charles ii and Horn and Corden.

Dominic Dromgoole - Director. He is also the Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe. Previous works at the Globe include King Lear, Love's Labour Lost, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. Dromgoole has also directed plays at many theatres, especially at the West End, America and Romania. He has also written two books titled The Full Room (2000) and Will and Me (2006).