Romeo and Juliet

Synopsis: A video recording, using a single, fixed camera, of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1986 modern dress production of Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Michael Bogdanov with Sean Bean as Romeo and Niamh Cusack as Juliet.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 29 Oct 1986
Duration: 185 mins

Notes: 'As we enter the Stratford theatre, a rock group is playing mood-indigo music, a black guy is cruising round the marble-smooth stage on roller-skates and there is a pervasive whiff of black leather’ (Michael Billington, Guardian (10 April 1986).
General: The fast-paced production with its emphasis on youth, popular music, fast cars, flick knives and the news media pre-empted Baz Luhrmann’s film by almost 20 years.
History: Press night 8 April 1986. The production transferred to the Barbican.
Stills: Stills from, and design notes on, the production are available on the Arts and Humanities Performing Arts Data Service (AHDS) at http://ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/designing-shakespeare.htm
Reviews: Jackson, Russell (ed.) Players of Shakespeare 2 pp121-35. Niamh Cusack discusses her preparation for, and interpretation of, the role of Juliet. Wells, Stanley TLS: Times Literary Supplement 25 April 1986. p448.

Name: Royal Shakespeare Company
Web: https://www.rsc.org.uk External site opens in new window
Address: Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Waterside
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
CV37 6BB