Globe Theatre warns audiences about Romeo and Juliet

I think there is a genuine issue with exposing dreamy teenagers to the idea that suicide for the sake of young love is somehow noble.

In my day, we studied R&J to the point of boredom before they took us to Stratford, and the slick rattled-off Shakespearean language and archaic costumes meant that most of us didn’t really engage with what was essentially ‘high culture”. More recent performances that try to engage with younger audiences and introduce elements of cultural relevance do risk prompting younger people to consider suicide as an appropriate response to a doomed love affair.

Al Pacinos MoV is wonderful...just saying. I don't enjoy these statements after TV or cinema and now it's in the theatre. I will under how many of 'people affected' actually take up the suggestion and therefore is it worth saying?

I have my doubts about contemporary and non-Elizabethan or Jacobean versions of Shakespeare's play being "more relevant" to today's audiences. They belong to their time and present a snapshot of that time. A truly gifted, imaginative and creative director can transport the audience back in time enhance the essence of the author's vision for a modern audience.

I shall never forget the feeling of pure shock and comprehension when I saw Adrian Noble's production of Macbeth many years ago. In the scene with the witches following the banquet where Banquo's ghost appeared, the witches sat at the empty table and chewed on leftover bread, passing around the leftover wine. Right at the end, they spat it out and, even though I am an atheist, the shock of this deliberately blasphemous eucharist brought home to me something of what the original audience must have felt when they watched the play.

It’s probably a good idea, given today’s blame and claim culture.
When we studied The MoV all those years ago we discussed the truth of the way Shylock was depicted and the history about moneylending around the 11th C. I don’t remember it being called anti-Semitism though.
The same idea occurs in Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy.
MawBe I love your warning to ‘bears’ or those ‘identifying as bears’. Very current idea!

The teatowel is currently out of stock on Amazon. Drat!

Read the small print at the bottom of the poster. It is a tongue-in-cheek send up of the modern obsession for warnings.

Not to be taken seriously. I thought fromt one of many of the above posts that it was a serious warning.

After a particular hectic week I have had a think and actually I quite fancy identifying as a bear from now on. But i think i would still like to identify as a female so a female bea. Just can't decide on honey or marmalade.

M0nica

Read the small print at the bottom of the poster. It is a tongue-in-cheek send up of the modern obsession for warnings.

Not to be taken seriously. I thought fromt one of many of the above posts that it was a serious warning.

I thought that was obvious - but my apologies if it wasn’t legible enough.

ginny

Oh my, are the going to change names in A Midsummer Nights Dream ?
eg. Bottom, Titania
They sound a bit rude and may offend.?

A year or two back the RSC did a modern version of Midsummer Nights Dream it was very bawdy, however it probably was very close to the original 16th century production.

It was NOT the version we did at school !.

I saw that production Katie59. It was indeed X rated but was more powerful in portraying the humiliation of the woman. Definitely not a comical version.

absent

I have my doubts about contemporary and non-Elizabethan or Jacobean versions of Shakespeare's play being "more relevant" to today's audiences. They belong to their time and present a snapshot of that time. A truly gifted, imaginative and creative director can transport the audience back in time enhance the essence of the author's vision for a modern audience.

I shall never forget the feeling of pure shock and comprehension when I saw Adrian Noble's production of Macbeth many years ago. In the scene with the witches following the banquet where Banquo's ghost appeared, the witches sat at the empty table and chewed on leftover bread, passing around the leftover wine. Right at the end, they spat it out and, even though I am an atheist, the shock of this deliberately blasphemous eucharist brought home to me something of what the original audience must have felt when they watched the play.

But isn't making plays 'relevant' what creative directors do all the time? I mentioned the Al Pacino Merchant of Venice upthread, for instance. It was set in the sixteenth century, and used language of the play, but was a modern take on the story. There are countless examples of other directors doing the same.

Many of the plays are set way before Shakespeare's time anyway - they were never intended as a portrayal of (his) contemporary life, but a way of using drama to comment on 'the human condition'. In many ways he was bringing old stories up to date by setting them in Elizabethan/Jacobean times.

I think they are warning tourists rather than those of us who know our Shakespeare. It's a 'must go to' venue for many. My daughter, living in London, attends the Globe very regularly, usually as a groundling. A groundling, for those not familiar with the term, is someone who pays to stand in the pit. She saw Titus Andronicus there and got covered in theatre blood. She knows to wear old clothes or have a waterproof covering. On that occasion 3 people fainted. The highest count, she believes, for Titus is 14 fainting. That creates problems for the staff who have to remove said person or at least make them comfortable. For anyone who has attended as a groundling you will know how space is limited. On her last visit, an American who had paid to be a groundling, argued with the attendant to show him where his spot to stand was and had great difficulty understanding it was a free for all. Regulars always get the best spot because they queue, English fashion, to be first admitted and then run. I think the warning is a case of 'If you can't stand the blood, stay out of the Globe'.

That's interesting, Devorgilla

From the sound of things they need to issue warnings about the experience, never mind the content of the plays?