Directing Juliets Long Soliloquy Essay -- Drama

How would you direct Juliet's long soliloquy in Act 4 Scene 3 on a Shakespearean stage, conveying Juliet's nightmarish terror and indecisiveness? My staging of Act 4 Scene 3 will emphasise the major themes which are continued in the play as a whole; love, fate and violence. Both Romeo and Juliet are sometimes portrayed as 'pawns of fate' unable to escape their destiny, yet in this scene as I wish to stage it, I want to show that Juliet, following the Friar's plan, takes a step towards changing that destiny. She does this out of love for Romeo and to escape the despair brought on by what she thinks will be a loveless marriage to Paris. Juliet is in the grip of very strong emotions and in this scene her morbid fantasies about tombs and spectres take a violent turn, showing the violence of her feelings and state of mind. It seems strange that most modern productions omit this scene, giving only the first and last lines. The last line too is given in various versions. Do the directors think that this "death bed soliloquy" - for that is what it turns out to be - from the heroine, is too wordy and that modern audiences cannot interpret the violent images she talks about without the images themselves before their eyes? Or do they think that such violent emotions are uncharacteristic of Juliet and are out of place? In my production I intend to combine the powerful words of the distraught Juliet with the inclusion of visual images to produce maximum impact. In order to help the Shakespearean audience visualise Juliet's words, I will place actors as ghosts and spectres acting out her 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, clothing and the actor a lot more than we would normally do now. As the director, I would ask the young actor playing Juliet to be wearing a yellow aristocratic night gown of the era. This would indicate to the audience that in the play it is currently night time and that Juliet is in her chambers (because a respectable girl would not be outside in her night clothes). The Shakespearean audience was very superstitious, so Juliet wearing a night gown that is yellow would also portray to them ideas of optimism. Also, along the ideas of superstition, I would want the vial to be red, ... ...loor of the gallery, where he has been waiting. Tybalt should look extremely menacing and threatening towards the crowd. As soon as Juliet says "O look!" I want the actor playing Romeo to appear on the gallery, next to Tybalt. While Juliet is speaking the next lines they should fight with rapiers. At the precise moment that Juliet says the second "stay!", I want Tybalt to stab Romeo, and then for all the actors on the upper stage to collapse to floor so they are not seen. I believe that in the staging of this scene, with actors acting out Juliet's fantasies as she says them, I have exploited the full potential of the Elizabethan stage. Since their access to props and lighting was limited, words had to convey the idea of action, but by combining verbal and visual I wanted to maximise the impact of the words. Juliet's highly emotional state is shown by her restless movements over the stage and her imaginings are portrayed in the gallery above. The violence shown throughout the play is mirrored here in Juliet's words. Her love for Romeo is the cause of the scene but the audience knows that in the end it is all futile since Juliet and Romeo are "star-crossed lovers".