Directing Juliets Long Soliloquy Essay -- Drama

How would you direct Juliets long soliloquy in Act 4 Scene 3 on a Shakespearean stage, conveying Juliets nightmarish terror andindecisiveness?My staging of Act 4 Scene 3 go away emphasise the major themes which arecontinue in the play as a whole love, fate and violence. two Romeoand Juliet are sometimes portrayed as pawns of fate unable to escapetheir destiny, besides in this scene as I wish to stage it, I necessitate to showthat Juliet, following the Friars plan, takes a step towards changingthat destiny. She does this verboten of love for Romeo and to escape thedespair brought on by what she thinks will be a loveless marriage toParis. Juliet is in the grip of very difficult emotions and in this sceneher morbid fantasies ab bring out tombs and spectres take a savage turn,showing the violence of her feelings and severalise of mind.It seems strange that most modern productions look out on this scene, givingonly the first and last lines. The last line similarly is given in va riousversions. Do the directors think that this death furrow soliloquy - forthat is what it turns out to be - from the heroine, is too wordy andthat modern consultations cannot get a line the violent images she talksabout without the images themselves before their eyes? Or do theythink that such violent emotions are uncharacteristic of Juliet andare out of place?In my production I int abolish to combine the effective terminology of thedistraught Juliet with the inclusion of ocular images to producemaximum impact. In order to help the Shakespearean audience visualiseJuliets words, I will place actors as ghosts and spectres acting outher fantasies in the gallery as she speaks the lines.On a Shakespearean stage the scenery was minimal, as were the props,so the contemporary audience relied on the words, c stage sething and theactor a lot more than we would normally do now. As the director, Iwould ask the younker actor playing Juliet to be wearing a colour dark night gown of the era. This would indicate to theaudience that in the play it is presently night time and that Julietis in her chambers (because a respectable little girl would not be outside inher night clothes). The Shakespearean audience was very superstitious,so Juliet wearing a night gown that is yellow would also portray tothem ideas of optimism. Also, along the ideas of superstition, I wouldwant the vial to be red, ... ...loor of the gallery, where he has been waiting. Tybalt should lookextremely menacing and threatening towards the crowd. As before long asJuliet says O look I want the actor playing Romeo to appear on thegallery, next to Tybalt. While Juliet is speaking the next lines theyshould beseech with rapiers. At the precise moment that Juliet says thesecond stay, I want Tybalt to stab Romeo, and then for all theactors on the upper stage to recess to floor so they are not seen.I believe that in the staging of this scene, with actors acting outJuliets fantasies as she says them, I have utilize the fullpotential of the Elizabethan stage. Since their access to props andlighting was limited, words had to convey the idea of action, but bycombining verbal and visual I wanted to maximise the impact of thewords. Juliets highly emotional state is shown by her restlessmovements over the stage and her imaginings are portrayed in thegallery above. The violence shown throughout the play is mirrored herein Juliets words. Her love for Romeo is the cause of the scene butthe audience knows that in the end it is all futile since Juliet andRomeo are star-crossed lovers.