JADAR

The first three shows in the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Autumn/Winter season are reimaginings of iconic texts. Following the theatre’s South Asian reimagining of Great Expectations, in collaboration with Tamasha Theatre Company, the theatre is producing a Black-led, modern, Mancunian Romeo and Juliet. (Rounding off 2023 will be a new production of Emma Rice’s reimagining of Brief Encounter).

Ahead of Romeo and Juliet‘s premiere, I had the chance to sit down with director Nicholai La Barrie to find out more about his reimagining of perhaps the world’s most iconic story.

What is your version of Romeo and Juliet about and what makes it unique?

N: “It’s about community really. It’s about how families and communities have to deal with tragedy and triumph, and I guess the question really is: what happens in a community if you are presented with a way to heal and then you choose something else, and how does that inform the rest of what you do?

“So, it’s about families and what those families mean to each other and to the community. I don’t think it’s unique. I think we set this in Manchester because I want the voices to sound a certain way, and I want it to feel like these people, and it’s in the city that it’s from wherever it’s set. But it’s this wonderful tale of these two young people who fall in love but then can’t have it.”

So, why Manchester and why Romeo and Juliet?

N: “Because Roy [Alexander Weise] asked me! The [then-] artistic director asked me!

“No, I think the reason I actually said yes was because I came to Manchester, and I had a look around, and it just felt like everything about the city feels really inclusive and beautiful and like home and like everybody belongs. Everybody who’s here belongs here. And I know that might not necessarily be true of everybody and everything but it feels like that.

“And I wanted to make the show have a little bit of that source in it, that little bit of welcoming. It feels like you. It feels like us. We know each other and we are all in this together kind of thing. We are not separate from each other. We are all in it together and we are all trying to figure it out together.”

Do you think people will connect to it more because of that?

N: “Yeah, I hope so. I hope that you come and see it, and it feels like you’re watching your sister or your brother. It feels like you’re watching your friends, your mates go through something really, really big, and hopefully you want to help and leave the theatre thinking: ‘Oh, I’ll think again if I see somebody in a tough time or going through something tough. I’ll think again about how I deal with them or how I go after it’”.

What kind of changes have been made? Is it still Shakespearean language or is it more modernised?

N: “No, it’s very much Shakespeare. I didn’t want to mess with it because it’s such a beautiful play and such beautiful language. I didn’t want to mess with it at all. It’s cut down a bit because the play is incredibly long – but it’s still Shakespeare at its heart.”

Do you think it’s difficult to keep Shakespearean language whilst adapting the story?

N: “I don’t think it’s hard at all as long as the story is clear. So, if the actors are clear with the intentions and clear about what they’re playing and what they’re talking about, then that’s very easy to do. When it becomes difficult, when it becomes sort of like a thought experiment or sort of like a lecture, is when you don’t know what you’re talking about or just spout lines that don’t really make sense to you. Once you’re clear about what you’re saying, I think it becomes much more accessible.”

You touched on this a little bit already but what do you hope the audience will take from the story?

N: “I hope they have a good time. I always want it to be like you come out feeling like: ‘I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve had a good night out. I’ve seen something that’s startled me and enticed me and made me laugh and made me feel something for our human condition’. So, I want them to feel like they’ve engaged with a really big, full story and that they had to come to the theatre to see this because it was visceral and pure and beautiful.”

What’s been the best and the most challenging parts of working on the show?

N: “The best part of working on the show is watching the actors work. They’re phenomenal actors and just having a conversation about something or having an idea about what this scene should be or what this character arc should be like, and then watching them take it and just knock it out of the park every single time, is beautiful. And watching every single one of those actors work is just really, really fantastic.

“The most challenging, I guess, is just making sure – and I still don’t know yet because it’s not up and running yet – making sure that the story lands and that we tell a really good, neat, clear story. That’s a challenge for me. It’s like all of these scenes work, but do they work as a whole, big thing?”

Do you think it’s important to revisit classical works in more modern contexts?

N: “Not all the time. I would say that it’s important to revisit the work however you want to tell it because sometimes you just have to do stuff that is true, the history of the time that it’s in and true to the thing that it’s in. That’s valid and very important because we have to understand where we’ve come from to understand where we’re going.

“But it’s also very important to take a story with these themes, these big, big themes and remix it, right? That’s what it feels like. This feels like we’re remixing! Like we’ve taken an ABBA song or an Elton John song and added some nice, big, fat kick drums and a house beat. It feels like we are doing something really, really fresh with it. But the core of it is still Shakespeare’s text and still his words. It feels like a good remix.”

Do you have any advice for directors in general or in adapting classical stories?

N: “Well, I mean, for adapting classical stories, it’s always stay true to the heart of what the thing is. If you’re too far away from what an adaptation is then you’re putting yourself in some tricky territory. So, always stay true to the heart of what the thing is. And advice for directors in general… I would say make things that you love. Make stories that you love. Make stories that you feel you have to see onstage and in film or whatever. Make stuff that lights you up.”

Romeo & Juliet runs at the Royal Exchange Theatre from October 20 to November 18.

Photo: Ella Mayamothi