Laura Merrell
The new movie Romeo & Juliet opened last Friday, and I still can’t decide if I want to see it. I was ecstatic when I first heard they were making another film version, but I find myself hesitant to sit through a movie that will probably disappoint me.
Normally, I get my hands on any and all Shakespeare productions I can, whether plays or movies. My commitment is often rewarded as it has led me to watch fabulous films such as 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s the Man. Believe it or not, I even soldiered my way through Gnomeo and Juliet, which features two rival gangs of garden gnomes and a lot of Elton John music. While Gnomeo and Juliet was a bit of a struggle to get through, I try to honor any attempt to modernize or update a Shakespeare production. I still fail to see how animated ceramic gnomes count as a suitable modern retelling for one of the greatest tragic love stories of all time, but there’s a larger underlying issue: should Shakespeare’s plays only be performed in their original time period, or is it permissible to change the setting and/or time period?
When I first got interested in Shakespeare in my early teens, I fought hard against any theater production of Shakespeare that used a setting other than the original. I was a purist and was insulted that people would take such liberties with his words. Eventually, it became clear to me that updating Shakespeare is necessary to keep him alive and relevant. Directors can and should breathe new life into these plays. I saw an excellent example of this at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival when they set Romeo and Juliet in a contemporary boarding school complete with uniforms, which emphasized the youth of the doomed lovers. If anything, it is potentially more difficult to stage a successful and well-received Shakespeare play on stage or screen in its original context because it can seem artificial and inaccessible to the audience. This most recent Romeo and Juliet adaptation worries me for that very reason. By sticking with the Verona setting and period costumes, the new film might fall flat on its face.
Refusing to update this Romeo and Juliet is, above all, a missed opportunity. It could have been made more poignant for a modern audience by placing it within the context of contemporary social and political issues such as the Iraq War or illegal immigration. It’s not an unthinkable horror to change aspects of Shakespeare around. After all, the plays are over 500 years old. They could use a facelift.
Regardless of whether a production takes place in the past or present, the specific historical outlook of the time in which Shakespeare wrote cannot be overlooked. The outdated views of gender and race present in his language need to be critically examined, especially if they are set in the time he wrote in such as the depiction of Jews in The Merchant of Venice or the plight of Caliban in The Tempest are prime examples. Shakespeare does not need to be thrown out as antiquated and narrow minded, but his plays do need to be thoughtfully and carefully performed. I suppose I will need to give Romeo & Juliet a chance to see how successful this version is. Besides, I need to do something to get the image of a pair of star-crossed gnomes out of my head.