Analyse Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' Particularly focusing on Act 1 Scene 5.

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Analyse Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of

Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'

Particularly focusing on Act1 Scene5

Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' was first performed on stage at the Globe Theatre, South London, in 1597. More recently the modern film interpretations, by Franco Zeffirelli in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann in 1997, have been viewed by thousands. 'Romeo and Juliet' is truly one of the greatest tales of all time, for it can still entertain an audience of all ages and stun them into silence, with its clever script and gripping plot.

Admittedly the romantic tragedy of 'two star crossed lovers' has been used to such an extent in a variety of stories such as West Side Story, that it is now considered a cliché. Yet despite this, the story of 'Romeo and Juliet' is still incredibly popular and easily grips a modern audiences. Set in the 13th century, Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is a story of two lovers, who, because of the hatred between their families, which goes back generations, can never be together. Their 'only love sprung from their only hate' leads to the tragic deaths of the two teenagers, and, ironically, the reconciliation of their families, the Montagues, and the Capulets.

When Shakespeare wrote this play, it was to be performed on an 'Apron stage', and by the nature of such an Elizabethan stage, this caused several problems . Not only were the curtains unable to be closed at the end of a scene or act, but since it was essentially an open-air stage, it could not be hidden in darkness. This meant that anything such as time or setting had to be conveyed to the audience through the words in script.

There was also the problem that at the time it was against the law for women to act on stage. So this meant gender was something else that had to be conveyed through the script, although, this was not as important as other aspects, because male actors were able to dress as women for the purpose of the stage performance. However, cross-dressing in any other circumstances was considered illegal, and so Shakespeare made the most of it in his plays, which resulted in some of them being quite shocking, yet highly amusing to an Elizabethan audience.
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There have been two film interpretations of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', both of which have used the original script, have been highly successful, and critically acclaimed, and yet the two films could not be more different.

The earliest of the two films was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, it was made in a traditional style, with 13th century costume, and setting. The film also follows the original script very closely.. The second interpretation directed by Baz Luhrmann, and could not be more different to the original film. Filmed in Mexico City, it is in a modern setting, with ...

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