The play of “Romeo and Juliet” was set in the cities of Verona and Mantua, Italy, over the course of four short days. All of the scenes occur in Verona, except Act V, scene 1, which takes place in the city of Mantua. Verona is the home of the Capulet and Montague families and is governed by a man who is just called “The Prince” Most of the play is acted out side the houses of these two families.
In the version of the film that Luhrmann made in 1996 he adapted it for the twentieth century screen but kept Shakespeare’s original language. The audience he was aiming for was the younger age, e.g. with flashy cars and guns and designer clothing. He has made it so the film is not as hard to follow. It is easy to tell what they are talking about because he used twentieth century icons to explain what the language means. Luhrmann set Romeo and Juliet in Verona beach; a seed, downtown urban area with a strong American feel to it. This was to make it more relevant for the audience. He chose to cast a mixed race because Shakespeare wrote this plays for everyone. So Luhrmann decided to put all kinds of people in.
Shakespeare used a prologue in his play of “Romeo and Juliet” to give the audience an idea of the duration, place, plot and background. In the first quatrain the he says “In fair Verona, where we lay our scene”; here Shakespeare is telling the audience about the place.
“From ancient grudge break to new mutiny”; here is some background information. The adjective “ancient” tells us it is a long-standing feud.
“A pair of star-crossed lovers takes their life”; the Elizabethans believed that your fate was written in the stars and so this part of the prologue says that the lovers would die.
“And the continuance of their parents’ rage…” here is says that the two parents continued to hate each other;
“Which, but the children’s end, nought could remove”; i.e. but only when their children are dead are they brought together in friendship.
The whole Prologue would have been spoken by a Chorus or by the whole cast. This character would not have taken part in the play but would just stay on the sidelines and introduced it and provided a commentary on the action of the play as it unfolded. If the cast was present, players would step out when reference was made to them for introduction.
This Prologue is written as a sonnet. It is a lyrical poem that contains fourteen lines in iambic pentameters with a set rhyme scheme. It rhymes in a particular way, with the last word of each line rhyming with the last word of another line. Shakespearean sonnets have 5 quatrains and a rhyming couplet.
English poets started to copy the poems of Petrarch and they kept his themes and his style, which was to write about courtly love that is rejected. In this case it is Romeo who loves Rosaline and she in turn casts him away and wants nothing to do with him; “She hath forsworn to love” (Act 1, Scene 2, line 215). But is the story about Romeo and Juliet about this? Romeo only loves Rosaline for the first two acts and then falls in love with Juliet for the rest of his life. And she does not at all reject him!
In Luhrmann’s film of Romeo and Juliet there are two readings-the first one is just the text. The second one is the text with images showing different parts for the prologue. He starts with a blank black screen. Then someone turns the TV on … to a news bulletin where a black female news reader reads out the prologue as a news item. Then lots of blurry pictures of “fair Verona”. The camera then centres on a huge statue of Jesus Christ. It is centred between the two buildings of the Capulet and Montague, as if in a gesture of peace. The camera then shows very fast scenes of police cars racing to something. Then you see a man on the ground being attended to by paramedics. Then suddenly you can see pictures of news reports, the two families each with their only child with the Sacred Heart in between them.
The newly printed newspapers show scenes of fighting and headlines of “NEW MUTINY” and “ANCIENT GRUDGE”. More magazines come up showing more pictures of fighting and death. This shows that the fighting has been going on for some time.
“Two households…”; this scene shows newspaper report pictures of the two families with Christ in between the two sets. “Both alike in dignity” shows a newspaper headline “Montague vs Capulet”. Luhrmann shows this by showing two great skyscrapers each with a Montague and Capulet sign on top of it. In the newspaper pictures the pictures of the families are exactly the same height and size. This also shows that they have an equal status. “In fair Verona, where we lay our scene” shows aerial shots of Verona, and scenes from close-up of the buildings, i.e. the two skyscrapers, “from ancient grudge break to new mutiny” shoes a helicopter patrolling and a newspaper headline showing “Ancient Grudge”, then police forces jumping out of helicopters with guns. Other newspapers come up showing a man with a gun with the headline “New Mutiny”. “With civil blood makes civil names unclean…” shows lots of police street fighting with guns and civilians running away, “...from forth the fatal loins of these two foes” shows a Capulet and a Montague about to shoot each other and then an aerial shot of a helicopter patrolling.
