Directing Juliets Long Soliloquy Essay -- Drama

How would you direct Juliets farseeing soliloquy in Act 4 Scene 3 on aShakespe arean stage, conveying Juliets wickednesstimemarish terror andindecisiveness?My re-create of Act 4 Scene 3 will emphasise the major(ip) themes which arecontinued in the play as a upstanding love, fate and violence. Both Romeoand Juliet are sometimes portrayed as pawns of fate unavailing to escapetheir destiny, yet in this scene as I attentiveness to stage it, I compliments to showthat Juliet, following the Friars plan, schools a tread towards changingthat destiny. She does this out of love for Romeo and to escape thedespair brought on by what she theorizes will be a loveless marriage toParis. Juliet is in the transfix of very strong emotions and in this sceneher morbid fantasies about tombs and spectres take a violent turn,showing the violence of her feelings and state of mind.It seems strange that about modern productions omit this scene, givingonly the first and finale lines. The last line t oo is given in variousversions. Do the directors think that this death bed soliloquy - forthat is what it turns out to be - from the heroine, is too dull andthat modern earreachs cannot interpret the violent images she talksabout without the images themselves before their eye? Or do theythink that such violent emotions are atypical of Juliet andare out of place?In my production I specify to combine the powerful words of thedistraught Juliet with the inclusion of visual images to holdmaximum impact. In order to help the Shakespearean audience count onJuliets words, I will place meanss as ghosts and spectres acting outher fantasies in the gallery as she speaks the lines.On a Shakespearean stage the tantrum was minimal, as were the prop,so the contemporary audience relied on the words, clothing and theactor a lot more than we would normally do now. As the director, Iwould ask the young actor playing Juliet to be wearing a yellowaristocratic night gown of the era. This would ind icate to theaudience that in the play it is currently night time and that Julietis in her chambers (because a respectable girl would not be outside inher night clothes). The Shakespearean audience was very superstitious,so Juliet wearing a night gown that is yellow would also portray tothem ideas of optimism. Also, along the ideas of superstition, I would fate the vial to be red, ... ...loor of the gallery, where he has been waiting. Tybalt should lookextremely menacing and gravid towards the crowd. As soon asJuliet says O look I want the actor playing Romeo to appear on thegallery, next to Tybalt. While Juliet is verbalise the next lines theyshould fight with rapiers. At the precise moment that Juliet says thesecond suffer, I want Tybalt to stab Romeo, and then for all theactors on the upper berth stage to collapse to floor so they are not seen.I believe that in the staging of this scene, with actors acting outJuliets fantasies as she says them, I have exploited the fullpotent ial of the Elizabethan stage. Since their access to props andlighting was limited, words had to convey the idea of action, but by combine verbal and visual I wanted to maximise the impact of thewords. Juliets passing emotional state is shown by her restlessmovements over the stage and her imaginings are portrayed in thegallery above. The violence shown throughout the play is mirror herein Juliets words. Her love for Romeo is the cause of the scene butthe audience knows that in the end it is all futile since Juliet andRomeo are star-crossed lovers.