I would direct Act 3 scene 1 with each of the characters bringing different emotions across to fit in with their type of character. To begin with, Benvolio would appear good-tempered and quite calm as that is the impression given from the beginning scenes of the written play. As a Montague, he would be dressed in the themed colour, but his costume would have a slight personalized difference to it. Mercutio being a lively, confident, stubborn and witty character would wear the Montague themed colour and have an exciting and loud tone to his voice to bring out his type of character. Mercutio’s outraged tone of voice in line 70 as he says, “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!” would be delivered in complete outrage due to the fact that Romeo had just allowed Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, to walk away without fighting.
Romeo, being the main Montague and one of the main characters would be dressed in slightly more elaborate Montague clothing, but the audience would still be able to tell which side he belonged to. As he is constantly referring to love, even from the beginning of the play he is in love with another girl, Rosaline, and he loves the idea of being in love. When he finds Juliet, he cannot believe he thought he was in love before, as he knows he is in love with her from first meeting her. Each Montague and Capulet would carry his own weapon, mainly a sword so that they could duel with their opposition in this scene. The choice of language spoken in the play fits in with the time era of Elizabethan England in which the play was written and produced. Shakespeare uses words such as mad blood, stirring, sword and kill, as this scene is full of violence and uses these words to talk about fighting and anger, which is relevant to what happens in the scene.
The fighting scene between Romeo, Tybalt and Mercutio in the written play only says ‘They fight’. I would direct the scene with the characters acting very enthusiastically, yet still making it look realistic by each of the enemies bringing across the great amount of hate they share for each other as they fight. However, as Romeo’s reluctance to fight is shown to the reader or audience, he would use such a tone to his voice that implied that he means what he says when he speaks to Tybalt in lines 66-69, “But love thee better than thou canst devise, till thou shalt know the reason of my love; and so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied.” this technique would emphasise Romeo’s love for Tybalt in the play.
The death of Mercutio is a key point in the play and to make this part in the scene seem important, it is essential that this fighting scene must be interesting and full of violence and uproar. I would include the rage, anger and violence in the scene to make it much more interesting to watch and to emphasise the hate in the play as it is a key factor in the play. After Mercutio had been slain, Romeo feels a great deal of hate for Tybalt, which leads to the second violent fight in the scene. In lines 118-125, Romeo speaks to Tybalt and explains that he is a villain and he himself or Tybalt will join Mercutio in heaven. Romeo finalizes the fight with Tybalt slain and realizes he has made a huge mistake with his actions of hate.
As the writer of the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Shakespeare would have to direct his created play consuming its characters, under the conditions given to him in that time era. All the plays were written to entertain the Queen and her people, but many issues had to be faced, such as no electricity, this meant that the plays had to be conducted in the daytime only. No elaborate make-up or fancy backdrops were to be used as they were simply not available in this time era. Another issue was the fact that males played girls parts as it was against the law for women to act in plays. Also, the audiences expectations of violence were quite high, the play must include exciting and gripping violence, some actors even carried a blood-filled animal bladder under their clothing so that when it was stabbed, the wound would look realistic, which appealed to the audience. Another key factor was to keep the audience entertained, because if they weren’t, they would throw objects at the actors and shout abuse out at them; this meant that plays had to be interesting.
Four different interpretations of the written play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ of Act 3 scene 1 show great differences as each one was filmed at different time eras. The first version, filmed in 1936, was filmed in black and white, immediately showing the age of the film as colour was not available back then. Continuing the early age given impression, the speech delivered by the characters is given with no feeling or different tones to the voice. The age of the characters also appear to be much older than the characters original age. However, at the time it was created, people wouldn’t expect the film to be exciting or elaborate.
The second interpretation of the selected scene is shown in colour and was filmed in 1954. The improvements made in this version were the clear tones in the actors voices, which were said with a lot more feeling and each opposition were colour coded, the Montague’s dressed in yellow and the Capulet’s wearing red. This technique helped the viewer to understand which character was from which side. Most importantly, the violence brought out in this version was made more dramatic and conducted with much more emotion. As included in the play, Mercutio’s humour about death is mildly brought out as he comes to his end.
The third version, filmed in 1968 by Zeferelli, gives a much clearer and accurate example of how the scene should be shown. It includes much more movement, colour and has a very loud and exciting atmosphere. The fight between Mercutio and Tybalt is very quick leading up to the death of Mercutio but certainly appears very physical and full of uproar and noise which makes it more interesting to watch, unlike the previous interpretations. The camera uses an excellent technique to bring the audience closer to the action by zooming on selected bits, such as the graphic blood on Tybalt’s sword after he has stabbed Mercutio. Colours such as red predominate in this scene and have been selectively chosen, the colour red represents blood, which in this scene is quite severely shed by two of the main characters. The large amount of humour used in this version brings out Mercutio’s character and also brings about a few changes to people’s attitudes. These attitudes change during the fight when first of all Mercutio jokes about being stabbed and dying when in line 92 he says, “No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, bit ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” and they laugh with him. But after his wound is revealed, they gasp and realize it is not a joke and he had been severely hurt. When Mercutio speaks to Romeo, he appears furious with both his beloved friend and his enemy when he repeatedly says, “A plague a’both your houses!” this line brings across the hate in the play felt by Mercutio to mainly Romeo for being hurt under his arm and also Tybalt.
The fourth and final version of this scene is the most accurate and filmed in colour in the modern day as it has young actors and actresses of the correct age and the scene has a great amount of both exciting and graphic violence. The tones used by the characters when delivering the lines have a lot of feeling and gives a great example of how the characters would deliver their lines like and how they would be feeling. Again, Mercutio’s humour is used after the stabbing and the graphic bloodied wound is revealed which surprises the viewer. The overall scene interpretation is incredibly exciting and by far the best as the young age of the version influences the performance and in so many ways that it is quite clear that with such a gripping scene of violence, interpreted from the written play, this gives the viewer the perfect idea of how ‘Romeo and Juliet’ would have been shown, except in a modern era.
