Comparing Different Productions of Romeo and Juliet

Comparing Different Productions of Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare, a well-known dramatist wrote and directed many

famous plays such as ‘Macbeth’ and ‘ AMid Summer’s Night Dream’ that

made a great impact on his audience and resulted in Shakespeare

becoming one of the world’s best-known dramatist. However, a tragic

love story of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet is probably his

best-known theatrical production in which two teenagers fall in love,

with a complication of hatred between their two families. During

Shakespeare’s time, only a limited amount of people had access to the

theatre that could watch on a fantastic production until a director,

Franco Zeffirelli changed that. However, thirty years later another

director by the name of Baz Luhrmann created another replica of

‘Romeo and Juliet,’ which would match the audience of today’s society.

Both of these directors present their production in different ways due

to the fact that they were affected by their culture.

Franco Zeffirelli is an Italian director and his adaptation of ‘Romeo

and Juliet’ added a powerful realism because the play is set ‘in fair

Verona,’ that is actually set in Italy. In comparison, Zeffirelli

obeys Shakespeare’s rules on scenery by setting the film in Verona. By

contrast, the Australian director, Baz Luhrmann set his version in a

mythical and artistically created California town called Verona Beach.

Luhrmann took a modern approach to William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and

Juliet’ due to the fact that his film work was about youth and how its

optimism, energy and inexperience were so ultimately human and real.

Similarly, Zeffirelli was also keen in castin...

... middle of paper ...

...d of William Shakespeare. On the

other hand, Luhrmann’s edition of Romeo and Juliet was an entirely

different contrast to Zeffirelli’s that portrayed and brought about

more contemporary aspects to the stage, for example, the setting being

modernized, the American accents used to draw in predominantly young

viewers. However, both the productions did succeed in delivering two

fantastic versions of Romeo and Juliet to their specified audiences to

fit their individual genres.

However, I personally preferred the Luhrmann’s version, as there was

an element of understanding, especially for younger adults that were

able to comprehend it easily. It produced a new variation that was

still exciting and enjoyable to watch in which it gave many

connotations from the tense, romantic and humorous situations

throughout the film.