Romeo and Juliet

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Karen Carleton
Performed in The Mill Theatre 16 to 18 June and Airfield 19 to 21 June 2010

Summer Shakespeare, performed outdoors around the longest day of the year, became a regular part of most of the Balally Players annual programmes after 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was performed in the gardens of Airfield House in 2001. Nine years later, Karen Carleton took 'Romeo and Juliet' to Airfield following a few days in the Mill Theatre.

Romeo and Juliet - a tragedy, but not as they knew it

Mercutio & Romeo

The plays of Shakespeare presented by Balally Players to date were his comedies. While 'Romeo and Juliet' is a story about young, innocent lovers coming to a sad end, the play is a tragedy laced with a fair amount of comedy. The sombre Prologue foretells of the darkness, but if it were not for that, the audience would see much more light than shade until Mercutio meets his end sharply, unexpectedly and almost accidentally. Mercutio belongs to neither of the feuding families. He is arch enemy of Tybalt and a close friend of Romeo. He is one of the few in Verona who can deal happily and freely with both houses and happy he is until the tide turns.

 

The play does not follow what was the accepted path of a tragedy, where a person of high rank is cut down or falls, usually to their death. Shakespeare presents the death of the two leading characters as a young and impetuous couple caught up in a tangled web woven as much by their feuding families as by themselves.

 

Some commentators have drawn attention to the fact that Shakespeare was a young man at the time he wrote the play. They have also speculated that he may possibly have married in haste. Whatever his motivation, he was inspired by both classical and medieval tragedy. A feature of contemorary dramatic writing was the combination of elements of comedy with those of tragedy.

 

For some, this is Shakespeare's most popular and famous play. The script tells the audience up front, in the Prologue, that this is going to be a tragedy where the children of two feuding families will both love and die before the play is over. The Montague clan (Romeo's parents) and the Capulet family (Juliet's parents) are effectively at war with one another.

 

Prince Escalus

Brawls between servants of the two feuding noble families drive the ruler, Prince Escalus, to declare that death will be the punishment for anyone who disturbs the peace in Verona. The prospect of their children falling in love and setting up home together fans the flames of family passions that are already ablaze. Hot stuff!

 

This early Shakespeare play (written around the mid 1590s) has not always enjoyed the critical acclaim it does today. It has sometimes suffered by comparison with his four great tragedies, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello. These days, academics are more likely to judge it as a great work of art in its own right, rather than as a less psychologically deep or structurally complex member of the Shakespearean set of tragedies.

 

In 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare vividly captures the beauty, intimacy and ultimate fragility of young love in a hostile world.

This production was a wonderfully fresh presentation from a cast committed to the traditional performance, beautifully costumed and lit.

The Balally Players production featured plenty of on-stage battles, sword fights, drumming, male group choreography, a masked ball for the ladies and more, all beautifully dressed in costumes designed by Dympna Murray.

This was a muscular production on the lives of the families - Mercutio and Tybalt, the feuding Capulets and Montagues - less romance and tragedy - more West Side Story than Baz Lurhman.

Robert Hudson played Romeo and Eilish O'Brien played Juliet.

 

 

Picture Gallery - Mill Theatre

Photographs from productions are stored on the SmugMug.com site. The Balally Players SmugMug account allows for the viewing and downloading of images at various sizes if high resolution pictures have been uploaded. The slideshow below can be run and stopped by clicking on the play (>) and pause (¦¦) icons. You can move forward and back by clicking on the right or left of the image. To go to the gallery of these images stored in the Balally Players pages of the SmugMug site, where you can see and download larger copies of the images, visit www.balally.smugmug.com to see all of the available galleries of images.

 

 

Picture Gallery - Airfield

 

 

Cast

Romeo Juliet Friar Lawrence Mercutio Nurse Tybalt Capulet Lady Capulet Montague Lady Montague Chorus Benvolio Paris Prince Escalus Apothecary, Citizen Balthazar Peter Mopsa Sampson Gregory Abraham Abraham Friar John, Constable, Citizen Page, Servant to Paris Officer to Prince Officer to Prince Citizen, Dancer Citizen, Dancer Citizen, Dancer

Robert Hudson Eilis O'Brien Michael Sharp Garreth Murphy Hilary Madigan Mark Phelan Brendan Dunne Joanne Keane Pat O'Grady Mary Ryan Muriel Caslin Sean Murphy Sean Ahearn Richard Stowe Deirdre Mullen Kevin O'Flynn Tony McGettigan Fiona Walsh Jamie McLoughlin Francis Cahill Darren McBride Richard Doyle Sean Daly Aoibhinn Finnegan Michael Carty Fintan Murphy Claire O'Donovan Teresa Dempsey Orla Cooney

Creative Team

Director Production Manager Costume Design Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Scenic Artist Lighting Design Lighting Operation Sound Operation Properties Set Construction Make Up Programme Design Programme Content Photography PR Crew & Front of House

Karen Carleton Aoife Braiden Dympna Murray Dave Walsh Doris Cullen, Lisa Walsh John Canning Paul Macken Peter Carey Andrew Gibbons Jean Monahan, Eithne Brannigan Brian Dempsey, Patrick Hand Teresa Dempsey xwerx.com Fiona Buckley Declan Brennan Judy McKeever Members of the Company

Additional valuable support was also given to the Director by Emma Coughlan, Paul Burke, Geoffrey O'Keeffe, Cathal Quinn and Claire Reilly.

 

 

A copy of the artwork for the programme is available here as a PDF file.

To open the document, left-click on the link above.

To download a copy, right-click on the link above and select "Save as....."