A distant door opens and shuts, the wind burst through and howls in the corridor as the door shuts the wind is again distant roar. The audience hears four sets of boots walking along the corridor talking quietly and excitedly while they get closer to the stage.
Four Red Guards enter the back stage entry, dressed in red coats and Cossacks, big boots, black trousers with a red line down the side .They enter the stage quickly, and then come forth with napkins into the main stage and start to make preparations for the party excitedly. They are young men and speak in prose to set the class distinction, even though there is suppose to be no classes. Because Stalin was so corrupt they weren’t as important as the Dictator by far so they are lower in the militaries hierarchy, they are not as important. To others they are inferior. This is shown with the simplicity of their uniform and language to show the speech difference, and to set the scene as a grand party.
For the next few minutes as they bustle about and arrange the hall for a feast and party the room gets lighter very slowly goes from begin dimly lit to being moderately bright very slowly though so the audience hardly notice. They light a fire that burns very low all through the scene (it is done with an electric element that looks like a coals to keep control backstage of the fire they have a switch). When one of the Red Guard bends down to turn it on the crew behind make it grow to a dull amber glow which carries on all through the scene. The way the men talk is brisk excited and energetic, to make the audience get the feel of a party.
Meanwhile another Red Guard lifts the cloth off the table and stores it in the wings, he uncovers the dishes and turns it into a feast of posh food; meats, fish, vegetables, deserts and wines all made in papier-mâché and gloss by artists in the backstage crew. Napkins are laid down and the Red guards retire, they don’t leave the stage but are not the focus of attention any more. This is shown through lighting.
Capulet, Lady Capulet, Juliet, Tybalt, Nurse, The Montague boys hidden by their masks and all the other guests enter through the main side entrance. The lights get brighter still on the entrance and the musicians come to life, they don’t play yet but are preparing to.
The audience sees the Ball starting, Capulet the clear host; he wears his white Uniform with gold embroidered around the shoulders. His wife stands close to him she wears a long pale dress, very elegant and a fur coat made of mink that finishes round the waist, satin white gloves and her hair dark and twisted high at the back of her head. Juliet as focused on at the front of the stage always (she will be dancing and being polite to other guests) she wears a long dress much like her mothers, made of thick wool, but still elegant. Her hair is tightly wound on the top of her head, as the scene goes on her hair will become loose then at the end it will be loose round her shoulders (This shows the audience a loss of control, as if she is in the hands of fate).
Capulet on entering is jolly and is enjoying the company of his guests. He welcomes his guests and persuades them to dance. He is a convivial host and his manner is charming and jolly. There is a general feeling of power with this man. They fear him. Capulet steps to the front of the stage in the centre (addressing the audience mainly) He welcomes the guests teases them slightly and sets the tone of the party, when he laughs everyone follows his lead and his gestures suggest power. The music begins to play and most of the guests begin to dance around the table, some talk at the sides and others drink wine.
Capulet steps to the left hand side of the stage with Tybalt next to him, he no longer addresses to whole room they are still enjoying the party but quieter as the focus (this is shown with lighting) is still on Capulet. He talks to the people around him who listen intently, he requests more light and the lights shine brighter immediately, he then requests the fire to be quenched because it is to hot and immediately the fire glow stops, the people around him nod and agree that it isn’t bright enough and the room is to hot. This shows the power he has and the strength of his person over everything in the room, that he can requests these things and it suddenly happens and everyone will be in agreement with him.
The group Capulet was addressing disperse and now he and another Capulet man sit down in the grander chairs and have a conversation (these chairs face the audience and all though they speak in hushed tones the audience can hear them chat). There conversation ends as the focus changes to Romeo in the centre of the stage. All the guests do not notice Romeo and are in the background carrying on with the party oblivious including Capulet who is miming laughter.
Romeo’s character;
Romeo is young and romantic. He falls in love often. His eyes are wide open when he enters like he is expecting something to happen. His face is open also and expectant. Clear skin and tousled hair he seems always chasing something. He is popular with the girls and with his male friends, he is favoured by his mother and has a free spirit and is always day dreaming exactly how we stereotypically expect a ‘Romeo’ to act, this stereotype did come from this character. The way he loves Juliet is frantic and passionate, he says romantic things and speaks in verse through out his cheeks are blushed to portray his excitement.
This is the first time we see Romeo, a mask covers his face, tousled hair, feminine lips and a tall figure are all we see of him. He wears smart evening wear. We see him in a clearing watching Juliet. She is dancing further off. He watches her for a few minutes and the focus is on her dancing with a few people and her smiling radiantly all the time. The lighting is at its most bright at this point. After a few minutes she carries on dancing but Romeo begins to talk half to the audience and a Red Guard at the same time, he seems in a dream likes stupor and sounds far away in the clouds when he asks who she is that he has been watching. The Guard doesn’t give him any useful information but he doesn’t seem to be listening as he launches one of the main speeches of the Act. Spoke in verse (he is a main character)
He has seen Juliet; and he is filled with imagination!
‘Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.’
The poetry bursts forth out of the actor’s mouth like it’s an impulse or a gut reaction. The focus with lighting should only be on Romeo (speaking) and Juliet (dancing). The language Shakespeare uses in this poem in essential to understand the message Romeo is trying to get across. He says the simplest things in the poem but he says them beautifully, he compares her beauty, flatters he deeply all in a form that could be a sonnet but this poem doesn’t not have fourteen lines and is not quiet the right structure of a sonnet, there is a sonnet in this scene which is the conversation they have when meeting (pilgrims lips etc). ‘Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’ He denounces all his other loves and all others who were beautiful and proclaims that his feelings are even more real than he has ever felt. ‘As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows’ she stands out far above all others around her. ‘Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!’ she should not use her beauty it is too rich, and for the earth her beauty is too dear.
He is declaring his love for Juliet; he does not yet know her name. No one else on the stage hears him though he is speaking loudly, they all carry on, Juliet carries on dancing unaware of an admirer. All throughout the speech she has a very innocent look about her.
Romeo is filled with passion when he says this speech but his passion increases and by the end he is nearly out of breath and looks in ecstasy. The audience will also feel this because the weather outside the window which until now has been grey and windy, when he starts talking light will start to shine from outside (a light bulb at the back of the stage behind the window) and the greyness will slowly disappear and there will be a greenish light as well that gets stronger over the windows to signify spring.
Tybalt is one of the guests standing near Romeo and he is the only one out of everyone in the room that seems to hear him, Tybalt looks at Romeo and he becomes angry, He suspects this masked guest to be Romeo and of the family that his father and all there family hate, enraged he speaks to Capulet almost shouting his anger and spitting with his words. Romeo in the background edges closer to Juliet, still watching her silently.
Capulet and Tybalt argue about Romeo. Capulet does not want his party to be ruined and tries to sho Tybalt away, eventually they get annoyed with one and another, Capulet doesn’t want a fight at his grand party and Tybalt wants nothing more than to take his anger out in violence. Tybalt eventually leaves Capulet but he is still fuming and then he exits through the side stage area
Tybalt is fierce; he is young and is passionate in his hate for the Montague’s. When he speaks his words are clearly articulated he spits when he talks and his dark brows twitch. His eyes dart around the room in search of trouble and when he is arguing with Capulet his face grows red; his anger is clearly shown in the way he acts around other people and his mannerisms. All through out the scene his pent up anger shows very clearly in his facial expressions, he looks set to explode.
‘…talk of peace? I hate the word as I hate hell, all Montague’s and thee’ – a quote from Tybalt earlier on in the play. I think this illustrates well Tybalt’s character and the way he should be acted. He thinks his anger was going to keep the Capulet’s safe, he would end up hurting everyone including himself because his own anger brought about his untimely death.
A ballerina comes forth from the Guards entrance like a bird and begins to dance as if she is using no effort to perform, everyone in the room freezes watching her in silence as the lights soften and a soft spot light focus on Romeo and Juliet nearing each other. Juliet watches with the rest until Romeo creeping behind her lays a hand on her shoulder, she almost jumps but is unfrozen and breaks away from the rest. As they speak the main sonnet of the scene there actions are choreographed almost like a dance with Romeo kissing her hand, she then walks away and blushes before returning and starting her speech ‘Good pilgrim you do wrong your hands too much’. They kiss twice throughout there meeting each time the ballerina still dancing at the back freezes as everyone else has been doing whilst watching her. Then when they finish a kiss she begins to dance again smiling all the way through her dance.
After the second kiss everyone looses interest in the dance and looks about them, still chatting quietly Capulet laughing and entertaining his guests. Some of them leave n others stand around talking, Romeo and Juliet still staring at each other and uttering the last lines to each other.
The significance of the dancer is too divert the attention of the guests away from Romeo and Juliet so they can meet properly and to show there feelings mirrored in a dance to help the audience understand.
The nurse Comes to fetch Juliet for her mother, Juliet hurries to the back of the room here she talks with her mother. The nurse is left with Romeo, he asks who her mother is, and when he finds out she is a Capulet he is shocked and quickly puts back on his mask and rushes to the side stage exit while the lights grow dimmer, Benvolio his friend next to him they look back frequently and are emerged in the mass of people exiting.
Capulet thanks the guests and everyone is exiting except Juliet and the nurse Juliet asks of a few men what there names are then she asks of Romeo Nurse does not know, she asks him and the nurse returns and tells Juliet he is Romeo son of his fathers great enemy.
The light becomes dimmer still and a lightning bolt flashes out side the window Juliet looks to the heavens turns away form the nurse. She begins in a whisper through gritted teeth, she becomes louder and louder throughout her speech. ‘My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy.’ Where the excavation marks are she is at her height of angriness and almost screams this, the lights flash and are darker than before, the nurse looks round scared as a lightning bolt flashes outside the window at the same point and the Ballerina drops to the floor in a heap. The lights turn off and the room is pitch black they exit and the stage all you can see is the wind howling out side.
The ballerina is a key feature in the last parts of the scene she is like an animal or a living being that only survives on happiness. Also she mirrors Juliet’s more sensitive side which doesn’t exit by the end she is so angry so she collapses. She dances almost with their hearts. At the end she has been dancing around the leaving guests. When Juliet feels the confusion and anger of finding out whom Romeo is and the impossibility of their love the Ballerina drops dramatically to the floor in a dead posture she lies there still when they exit and the lights go out and the curtain is drawn down. I choose a ballerina because it is a highly skilled art especially in Russia, The way the dancer moves can reflect the feelings well throughout the play to make it easier to follow; it also makes everything seem more dramatic.
I have used the lighting to represent the changing seasons of loves mood. How bleak and cold it was at the beginning without love or feelings for one another. The spring grew more prominent outside the window as they met and felt there were more of a purpose in life with each other and the anger and confusion at the end, Especially Juliet I think feels fate has made a fool of them. Both of them are teenagers with raging hormones. The weather is those hormones, quickly changing light and dark moods. The spot lights used are to show that what is happening under the spotlight should be the focus of attention. There is almost an argument going on which the Lovers win. The Adults control the heat and light inside the house; they can turn down the heating and light up the fire, but outside the forces are controlled by the feelings of Romeo and Juliet. They are trapped in a world controlled by the adults and the weather scenes outside show how they feel, in the end they win all though they don’t know it, Juliet’s emotions are stronger than her fathers control so when the lightning flashes outside which is her feelings, it puts out all lighting in the hall and sends the whole place into darkness. Her storm is still going on outside the windows even at the end which means nothing is resolved she is still angry. Which is why the Ballerina is knocked out; she show’s the more sensitive, innocent side to Juliet which is gone now she is so driven by her feelings.
