Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet.' Shakespeare Survey 15 (1962): 147-155.īrown, John Russell, ed. 'The Genesis of David Garrick's Romeo and Juliet.' Shakespeare Quarterly 35 (1984): 170-79.īrown, John Russell. 'The Visual Artistry of Romeo and Juliet.' Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 15, no. The Other Shakespeare: 'Romeo and Juliet.' Rhinebeck, NY: Bardavon Books, 1985.īlack, James. London: BBC New York: Mayflower Books, 1978.īetken, William T., ed. Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Īlexander, Peter, ed. 'Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.' In Players of Shakespeare 2: Further Essays in Shakespearean Performance by Players with the Royal Shakespeare Company, edited by Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood, 107-19. See Performing Romeo and Juliet for a curated tour of this site's materials on the play. The filmed versions of the play, such as Zeffirelli's, often have more energy and visual appeal than the staged ones (compare, for instance, this 1911 production with Zeffirelli's film). The Nurse is an archetypal humorous figure: the garulous, sex-fixated crone, like Chaucer's Wife of Bath or La Celestina of Rojas (see Edith Evans in the role).

Mercutio adds a distinctive eccentricity to the early scenes (see James William Wallack in the role). Throughout Juliet has a charm and verve which wins her more sympathy than the fickle, volatile and over-hasty Romeo, who precipitates their ruin, and who is responsible directly or indirectly for six deaths in Shakespeare's script. Early productions favored a more positive conclusion in their revisions, including the survival of the lovers, as did Lope de Vega in his treatment of the same story. This play has become the adored icon for doomed romantic love, although the first two acts have a verve and humor missing in the concluding downbeat scenes, which are usually heavily cut.

Romeo and juliet play scripts