What if you fell in love with your enemy?
Ripped apart by their parents' feud, two star-crossed lovers risk everything to be with each other.
On Wednesday, the 21st of November, we watched a live streaming, from the Barbican, of the famous Shakespearean play 'Romeo and Juliet'. It aided us with our GCSE English Literature as we are currently studying the text. It helped us visualise the characters more, and assisted us with understanding the plot in depth. We were also able to identify the main themes portrayed by Shakespeare throughout the play, including the themes of light and dark imagery and relationships. Watching the play made us interpret it slightly differently, with the positions and other staging concepts adding to our knowledge. For example, Juliet was physically on a higher level to Romeo most of the time, which reflects the fact that she has more wealth and status than him.
This phenomenal play was followed by an interview with the main characters: Karen Fishwick, who played Juliet, and Bally Gill, who had the role of Romeo, as they answered several questions asked by pupils in the schools that watched. One example of a question asked is 'Do you think Romeo and Juliet would have stayed with each other if they had not died?' and their response was that it is likely that they would have, as they were deeply in love and after all, they were already married. However, the family feud might have kept them from doing so. Another question was 'Why did the Capulets and Montagues hate each other?' and this is quite a difficult question to answer as Shakespeare did not specifically state what the family feud was. Karen and Bally replied that it is open to interpretation, but it is evident that it must have been something really bad because their whole lives were ruined by it.
For schools and young people in particular, especially those studying GCSE at the moment, this play is a fantastic way to explore the concepts of family and loyalty as well as looking at a range of themes, including: family relationships, fate and destiny, and love. I strongly recommend watching this fascinating play, and I am sure my peers would agree, as one of my friends, Varsha Golla, stated, "This captivating play was filled with excitement throughout and even made me quite emotional." When asked about her favourite character, she said "I really liked the nurse because she was an affectionate and amusing character, and Ishia Bennison (the actress) took on this role profoundly."
Watching a live streaming of a play is very efficient as you do not have to go to the theatre, and it is also free of charge; it is a great opportunity.
The most famous story about love at first sight. It must be watched.
