“A spin on the old love story, only this time, with disdain, shame and a desire to perfect what was never meant to be.”
Seeing Juliet and Romeo take the stage, only to sit in a marriage counselling office, attempting all tricks of the trade to rekindle their marriage, made me a ashamed of the love story that we could never stop loving. Their next attempt: reenactment therapy. Sat in front of me were two tired people, willing but also unwilling to try and fix this mess. Confliction came over me pretty fast, from the beginning, even. I felt so torn watching this story – a story of love and hate, want and need, desire and romance and falseness.
Juliet, played by Emily Terndrup, was the willing. A Juliet that longed for a spark back. Her confidence and eagerness to take the stage, to reenact her years with Romeo of love, sex and passion fell flat and almost ruined by Romeo, who couldn’t quite see the same thing she did. Romeo, played by John Kendall, giving off an air of unavailablity and distance which clearly wound Juliet up.
Both were wonderful, I was tricked into believing that their chemistry would last forever, but I was wronged by a gradual sourness between the two of them. Not to mention that both Terndrup and Kendall’s skill with dance was one to be applauded.
Each lover took it in turns to reminisce and remember memories that felt important to them, inviting each other to step in and help relive the story, only to find that each other would ruin their memories, perhaps the memories were never actually as good as they thought. Movement was brought in, which fascinated the audience and swooped them into a moment of true love and togetherness, something that was never really their in words. Both performers moved beautifully, gliding, lifting, bashing and humping their way across the stage.
Lost Dog, an award winning theatre and dance company, based in East Sussex came to play with this tale. Each movement and step feeling right to this story, honouring what maybe both Juliet and Romeo felt towards each other but could never say. How they both loved each other, both physically and emotionally yet couldn’t translate into words. The direction from Ben Duke and originating artist, Solene Weinachter was something to love, their cleverness with action led the story along without it feeling heavy and complicated. Instead, I was able to understand why Juliet and Romeo were the way that they were. Juliet, an obsessive and desperate mother, wanting, wanting anything that would make her life feel better, thinking it might’ve been the reenactment of the poisoning in their play Romeo & Juliet, written by Shakespeare. Yet, Juliet was lulled into a false sense of stardom, constantly feeling flattened by her life full of shame, wonder and entrapment from motherhood. Romeo, someone who never meant to fall that deeply in love with Juliet, and began to see his life without as one with potential and hope.
A handful of the elements felt a little flat, and almost predictable. The explanation as to why Romeo felt like he could live without Juliet was a little sparse and left me feeling dissatisfied. The representation of Romeo was plain, a man who couldn’t access his emotions, Juliet, a woman who was highly strung. The show was humourous and light, even when dealing with a traumatic past, however, it became foreseeable with the jokes, some of them being slightly overdone. Even though the audience were inticed and clearly enjoyed the performance, I was left wondering who the target audience was?
In the good sense, I felt true dissatisfaction from watching the two rekindle. Movement brought passion back and yet when broken, I was brought back to their true and real world, where never ending problems of distrust and disdain. I kept doubting the decisions being made by the two characters, finding myself being disappointed in them both, why couldn’t they fix this? Both their perfectionisms ruining their own story, a wound constantly reopening with each reenactment, perhaps that was the intention. Selfishness, was what broke them apart. Selfishness had always been in the story, yet in a different way. Both lovers, so entangled and desperate to be together, they had to be selfish. However in this tale, selfishness had a different motive. Both being selfish in what they wanted pulled them apart more and more.
This show runs at the Bristol Old Vic from 22nd – 26th September. Tickets are available here.