Star-cross’d luvvies - Romeo and Juliet

Britain’s TNT theatre group is back in town, this time bringing the Bard’s most famous story with them. Nancy Pellegrini asks Dan Wilder and Gehane Strehler what it’s like to play Romeo and Juliet

Romeo says…

TO: What’s the best and worst part about playing Romeo?

RM: Being eponymous is fun. But the role is often pre-conceived by the audience.

TO: If you could play Romeo opposite any actor (living or dead), who would it be?

DW: I really like the work of that German actress from Run Lola Run... Franka Potente, that’s it!

TO: What’s the strangest thing that ever happened to you while on tour with TNT?

DW: It’s probably that audiences clap Romeo’s death.

TO: What’s your favourite role?

DW: Romeo. I’ve been Mercutio twice before though, and love him too. It surprised me that I ended up preferring Romeo

TO: What is different about TNT’s version of R and J? DW: What’s that? There are other versions? Actually, us playing multiple characters keeps backstage a performance too, but truly, I think we give the play straight and tell the story in a pure way. Paul (Stebbings, director) has wrestled the beast of the text and pinned it down very well, I think.

Juliet says…

TO: What’s the best and worst part about playing Juliet?

GS: Juliet is brave, headstrong and determined to map out her own future by marrying for love rather than social status or financial gain. She is in many ways a forerunner of a modern feminist and absolutely refuses to bend to the will of her father and social expectations. Of course, playing such a hysterical and dramatic role almost nightly is exhausting, especially when you are jetlagged and need to prop your eyes open with matchsticks.

TO: If you could play Juliet opposite any actor (living or dead), who would it be?

GS: Richard Burbage, supposedly the original Romeo. Shakespeare often wrote parts with specific players in mind, and I would love to perform opposite the man his poetry was intended for. Despite actors of the time having a reputation as rogues and vagabonds, Burbage took his craft seriously and his style was similar to modern method actors. He lived and died for the stage – his tombstone simply read ‘Exit Burbage’.

TO: What’s the strangest thing that ever happened while on tour with TNT?

GS: Possibly taking the role. The first Juliet had to leave, so I was flown in last minute to Zurich where I had a week to watch the show and learn the lines. We had two days before I performed in a German theatre in front of a 600-strong audience. I was still learning her final speeches twenty minutes before curtain up.

TO: What’s your favourite role?

GS: Feste in Twelfth Night, primarily because of the various skills I had to acquire. In four weeks I learned how to juggle apples, perform magic tricks and play the accordion – fear is a wonderful catalyst for learning.

TO: What is different about TNT’s version of R and J?

GS: This version brings the themes of fate and tragedy to the foreground. The intertwining of cupid and death gives the play the grounding it needs to avoid being a saccharine love story. The protagonists’ deaths are caused not by their supposed love, but by their warring families and unnecessary hatred. Reconciliation is only achieved by the loss and sacrifice of love. And for this reason it’s still an enduring tale. What if Juliet was Israeli and Romeo Palestinian?

Romeo and Juliet is at the NCPA , Monday 9 to Wednesday 11 and PKU, Friday 20 to Sunday 22; TNT is doing a second production (with a different cast), Gulliver’s Travels, on Friday 13 and Saturday 14.