I have been rehearsing Romeo and Juliet for months now for a tour in Dubai in February. However in order to perform in Dubai you have to get official government approval, we have been waiting on tenterhooks for ages, knowing that the whole thing will be derailed if the government decide that we are not allowed to do the show. But today we finally got approval for the shows which will be on at the Madinat Theatre from the 11th – 14th February. Yay!!
I am playing Juliet so, in celebration, I am going to share my top ten Juliet lines from our abridged version.
1. Just because it is one of the most famous theatrical lines in history:
O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo
Deny thy Father and refuse thy name
Or if thou wilt not be but sworn my love
and I’ll no longer be a Capulet
2. For comic value, and it is a tongue twister (go on I dare you to say it fast):
Blistered be thy tongue
For such a wish, he was not born to shame
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit
3. I love the whole scene with the nurse, and this is a moment when Juliet takes a little of the control back (momentarily):
I’ faith I am sorry that thou art not well
Sweet sweet sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love?
4. Because at this point it gets so harrowing:
O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
Seeking out Romeo, stay Tybalt stay!
5. Because it is one of the best monologues ever, it is powerful, energetic, feisty and innocent of the dark events that have already occurred, the poetry and imagery of it is spectacular:
Gallop apace fiery footed steeds, towards Phoebus lodging
Such a wagoner as Phaeton would whip you to the west
and bring in cloudy night immediately
…………………….
Give me my Romeo and when he shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars
and he will make the face of heaven so fine
that all the world will be in love with night
and pay no worship to the garish sun
6. Because this is where she delivers the tease which gets Romeo hook, line and sinker:
This bud of love by summer’s ripening breath
Make prove a beauteous flower when next we meet
7. Because she is desperate and this leads the friar to take fatal action from which there is no way back:
Be not so long to speak! I long to die!
If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy
8. Because she is covering up the fact that she just snuck a boy into her room and lost her virginity (and because this line always gets a laugh, and I like to highlight the funny bits in this play):
Indeed I shall never be satisfied with Romeo
Until I do behold him………dead
9. Because it is about the only time that Romeo and Juliet find time to have fun together and because I love the imagery and flow of this line:
Yon light is not daylight, I know it, I
It is some meteor that the sun exhales
To be to thee this night a torchbearer
And light thee on thy way to Mantua
Therefore stay yet, thou need’st not to be gone
10. Because this is the resolution of the story and the resolution of her life:
Yea noise, then I’ll be brief
Oh happy dagger, this is thy sheath
Let me know if you have any lines from this play or other plays that you particularly love. This has been the best part I have ever got my teeth into, Juliet is such a dream to play.
If you are interested in finding out more about warm up shows in the UK or the Dubai shows then please get in touch.
PS I apologise if I have mis-quoted or if any Shakespeare scholars prefer different versions, this is the version that I am working with!
