Andrew Anderson takes a look at our site-specific – and unusual – take on one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays…
Think of Romeo & Juliet and you might imagine something staid and plain, like the performances we all sat (or slept) through on school trips. What you’re probably not thinking of is a version of Romeo & Juliet that’s played out, promenade-style, at a swimming pool – which is exactly where HOME plans to stage its version of Shakespeare’s tragic love story this autumn. The pool is, of course, none other than the majestic, Grade II-listed Victoria Baths, whose glimmering beauty will make for an atmospheric and, we are told, watery backdrop to the classic play.
It’s not only the location that’s different, though, as artistic director Walter Meierjohann has set the play in Eastern Europe, with Verona replaced by bustling Baltic streets – and the characters drawn not from the house of Capulet but from the criminal underworld. Yet it is the Victoria Baths, and all three of its swimming pools (one of which will be filled especially for the performances), that have offered its producers such rich possibilities. “The cubicles in the ladies pool inspired us to make the opening a chorus scene between the Capulets and the Montagues, rather than a dialogue as it is written,” says dramaturge Petra Jane Tauscher, who is working on the production alongside Meierjohann. That’s a clue as to how this version of the play has, in their hands, become much more visual, with the dialogue edited accordingly. “It’s important to create some space in the text for physical and visual possibilities,” says Tauscher. “It is a fairly bold edit, but I am also realistic about the challenge of the language of Shakespeare; it is often hard to understand and requires great concentration.”
Romeo & Juliet is part of HOME’s ongoing site-specific season, which runs almost up until the arts centre opens next year, and while it’s a chance to see exciting work in unusual locations, it should also be seen for what else it offers: the chance to see HOME’s artistic team on the road before they settle down into a new place all of their own.
Romeo & Juliet runs Wed 10 Sep – Sat 4 Oct at Victoria Baths. The production is now sold out.