Portraying Mercutio in Production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Portraying Mercutio in Production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

As a director I would cast Mercutio as a very dramatic and vibrant

character. This is because many of the things that he says are very

outrageous and I imagine that they come from a similar kind of

character. As Romeo and Juliet is play not a novel, we do not get a

written description of any of the characters. This means that we have

to make one up for ourselves in our minds. In the Baz Lehreman

production of the play Mercutio is played as a black transvestite. I

like this idea and I can imagine him as this character but I think

that it might be slightly over the top. I think that even though

Mercutio is a very extrovert character, I think that he is too refined

and too influenced by society to be a transvestite. He would appear on

the outside in bright, flamboyant dress but still in the style of the

age. He might move and act slightly homosexual but he must speak very

confidently to go with his personality. His lines could be slightly

overacted so that he stands out as a character.

In Mercutio's first appearance, where he performs the queen Mab speech

he talks about a fairy and a whole magical world "she is the fairies

midwife…no bigger than an agate stone". He carries on like this

describing more and more of this magical world and gets quite carried

away. This makes us feel like he might get quite carried away as a

person, who might not be able to control himself. After a while

Mercutio starts talking about more dark subjects such as

"This is that very Mab

That plaits the manes of horses in the night,

And bakes the elf locks in foul sluttish hairs,

Which once untangled much misfortunes bodes,

This is the hag, when maids he on their backs,

Then presses them and leans them first to bear"

His speech is brought to a premature end by Romeo who says "Peace,