'Shakespeare Am Rhein' - Director's Note
Find out more about the creative direction of our Production of Shakespeare's 'Romeo & Juliet' - Coming Summer 2021 to the Kaiserpfalz Ruins in Kaiserswerth!
DIRECTOR'S VISION
By Michael Schäfer, Director
When you think of ROMEO AND JULIET, images immediately come to mind: the sand-coloured facades of Verona's houses, warm sunlight, Italian flair, pompous costumes, coat and sword, a balcony entwined with roses, a romantic love story and lots of heartache. - This is how you often see this play, especially in the summer theatre. My production will be different. In my opinion, in Shakespeare's case, one should not be seduced by the outward appearance of his plays. It may be entertaining and light, but it doesn't do justice to the material or the audience.
It is not a love story that is brought down by adverse circumstances and evil machinations. It's more a story about hate and violence, in which the hopeful, tender little plant of a conciliatory love grows. The play is not about love under the threat of hate, but hate under the threat of love. I think this change of perspective is important in Shakespeare.
Lara Schitto as Romeo & Jess Cummings as Juliet
Photo: © Rosie Thorpe
Lara Schitto as Romeo & Jess Cummings as Juliet
Photo: © Rosie ThorpeI want to deepen and work out the contrasts, the extremes that Shakespeare created in his play and the characters. Good and evil are two attributes that are too often separated in the real world as well as in the theatre, too often projected onto different characters or conflict parties. On closer inspection, however, we know that good and evil always go hand in hand and are a jointly connected part of our humanity. This will also be the case in this production. I don't want to show the figures in black and white, or divide them into good and evil. Every single figure in the play is full of hate and cruelty but also full of love, friendship and helpfulness. And yet in the end they all end up making themselves guilty. In a conflict, everyone bears responsibility for what happens.
Shakespeare condenses a plot that in real life might last weeks, if not months or years, into five days of narrative time. Like in a film, we jump from one scene to the next, bridging time and space. Along with the universality and timelessness of the themes of ROMEO & JULIET, this lends the piece a metaphorical quality. In order to preserve this character and thus expand the space for interpretation, we want to take the piece from a real time and place. Our costumes and props will be colourful and rustic. They are in harmony with the rough rock of the ruins of the Kaiserpfalz. At the same time, they make use of a variety of epochs and cultures to emphasize the characteristics of the figures, not a correct historical reference.
We will make what fuels the inner conflicts and state of the figures visible to the outside, regardless of a historical reference to reality.