Act 4: AT DOUBLE SPEED

On to Act 4-  shorter as was going to write ACT 5 tonight too... but you know what? Act 5 is just going to have to wait until my blissful week away from my computer aka LOVEFEST 2012 part 2. aka you can look for it next Sunday night and then i'll be back on my regularly scheduled timeline...

OK, 4.1

The act opens with Paris visiting Fr. Lawrence. Paris is already calling Capulet his father and explains he would have wooed Juliet more but "Venus smiles not in a house of tears."

Teaching moment: Dramatic irony- the audience is on the friar's dilemma but Paris is clueless. why is this important to focus on? because dear god we need some sort of humor right about now. I think that's why Shakespeare gives us this golden rhyming exchange:

PAR.

Happily met, my lady and my wife!

JUL.

That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

PAR.

That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.

JUL.

What must be shall be.

FRI. L.

That’s a certain text.

Another reason i love the Friar- he screws up. Not only does he not suggest Juliet FOLLOW ROMEO TO MANTUA, you can tell that he is scared and fallible and does not want to admit that he married these two young people without any parental knowledge or consent.

Ok I promised a speedy post so on to the next scene:

4.2

Continuation oddity- last act Capulet said they would invite very few to the wedding on account of their mourning for Tybalt. NOW  he's hiring twenty cunning cooks! What happened? This is also a very strange comedic exchange between Cap. and the servants. Then Juliet comes back with the Friar's sleeping potion plan in place and pretending to be very contrite and open to marrying Paris. And I think if your Capulet can somehow win the audience back, even a little bit after threatening to banish Juliet, then this line is incredibly heartbreaking: "my heart is wondrous light, since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd" Poor dad. too bad you daughters going to die in the next 24 hours. and you're going to have to go through that TWICE. ooops. spoiler alert. (how does one spoiler alert one's entire blog?)

4.3

 Juliet sends her nurse and her mother away. The fact that she almost calls back the nurse kills me. 

Teaching moment: where to take the pause in the short line in Juliet's soliloquy . 

ah yes another fantastic Juliet soliloquy.  and i love how DARK and terrifying this is. 

O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environed with all these hideous fears, 

And madly play with my forefathers' joints

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud

CREEPTASTIC. and then she sees Tybalt's ghost. also creeptastic.  and her taking the potion is the end of the scene.

4.4

a very short scene and one that is often cut. The capulets and the nurse and some serving people run around preparing for the wedding and making awkward jokes. all I can think of as far as not cutting this scene is that the JOY for the anticipated wedding helps you feel much more crushed in the next scene...

4.5

I think you all know by now that the nurse discovering Juliet's death breaks my freaking heart. but i had to laugh a bit at how long it takes her to figure it out ONLY because it reminded me so much of The Maids Tragedy and the servingmen with the king...

this scene is a beast and if I were a director I think it would scare me. it is so strange because one by one the woes and mourning builds to chaos (a highlight for me: "MY SOUL AND NOT MY CHILD" says Capulet. SO GOOD." Then Friar lawrence quiets them all down while trying not to give his hand away in this whole plot, Capulet grieves some more with lovely poetry, and then everyone but the musicians leave- the musicians have this awkward word play with Peter, peter sings a song, and the scene ends with one of the musicians saying "Come, we'll in here, tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner" whaaaat?! No wonder people cut this. but i'm so intrigued to see a production that keeps it in and how audiences react.

 

OK, to make up for my being gone for a while and in honor of Girl Meet World being announced this week... here's two boy meets world clips having to do with R&J, in the first clip you can skip to 2:30 and listen to Feeney's wisdom on this play... in the second clip Eric gets his big break accidentally playing Romeo. ENJOY!

 

 

 

 

 

Bam. done. off to pack. because if my man were ever banished, i'd want to pack up and follow him. not take some sketchy sleeping death potion.