The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.0367  Thursday 4 March 1999.

[1]     From:   Matthew Bibb <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 03 Mar 99 09:48:13 -0800
        Subj:   R & J/Capulets' Ages

[2]     From:   John Velz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 03 Mar 1999 23:57:41 -0600
        Subj:   Lady Capulet in Love


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Matthew Bibb <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 03 Mar 99 09:48:13 -0800
Subject:        R & J/Capulets' Ages

>I always want to see a Lady C who is in love, or lust, with Paris.
>My fantasy, and I've never seen it in production.

>Tonya

One of the many things that Baz Luhrmann does correctly in his film (and
those who dismiss the film as cartoonish or simplistic are simply not
watching with enough attention) is present a Lady Capulet who is clearly
in love (or lust) with Paris, and living vicariously through Juliet.
It's a marvelous touch, in a film filled with them.

     Matt Bibb
     Lost Dog Productions

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John Velz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 03 Mar 1999 23:57:41 -0600
Subject:        Lady Capulet in Love

Tonya Tilbeck asks about Lady Capulet's possible erotic interest in
Paris.

I don't know of any production that played up this motif.  But a long
time ago, prob. in 1980s I saw a RSC production done in Northern Italian
Mafia style in which Lady C .is carrying on a love affair with Tybalt.
She gets hysterical over his death, and that may have inspired this
tangent to the main action.  The ball scene was done as a cocktail party
at which Tybalt gave Lady C. an abdominal massage through her dress.  It
got the audience's attention.  This production has been called "The Alfa
Romeo Giulietta" production, because Tybalt owned one in firey red which
was driven onto the stage to awe the audience.  This for the deaths in
3.1. Tybalt attacks Mercutio with a chain and the latter nimbly skips up
onto the hood of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta so that T will risk damaging
his beloved car if he attacks Mercutio with a paint threatening chain
while he is on it.  A temporary lull in the fighting while Mercutio
takes another position and then the deaths occur.  As the Alfa Romeo G.
and the Mafia element will make clear, this was a flashy and imaginative
production.  But the poetry kind of went down the drain.

Cheers
John Velz

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