In focus: Rupert Goold 2010

Rupert Goold's hectic production mixed modern dress and period costumes, as it fizzed with sex, death, fire and violence.

A modern-dressed laughing young woman starts to undress a young man
Impatient lovers: Juliet (Mariah Gale) and Romeo (Sam Troughton), 2010, Courtyard Theatre
Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

HOODIE ROMEO

Goold’s exhilarating production had a memorable opening as a hoodie-wearing Romeo (Sam Troughton) wandered into a dimly-lit church listening to his audio guide, relaying the ‘Fair Verona’ prologue. This was followed by Elizabethan-dressed Montagues and Capulets engaged in a bloody brawl, against a background of fire and smoke.

ROYAL AUDIENCE

After opening at the Courtyard Theatre in March 2010 and touring to Newcastle upon Tyne and London, the production returned to Stratford-upon-Avon the following year.  In March 2011 Sam Troughton (Romeo) and Mariah Gale (Juliet) performed the balcony scene for our Patron, Her Majesty the Queen, as part of the opening ceremony for the newly transformed Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

TIMELESS LOVERS

An energetic Romeo (Sam Troughton) sprinted into the stalls and rushed up the steps, to flirt with a playful Juliet (Mariah Gale). The lovers' modern clothes contrasted with the period costume worn by the rest of the company, emphasising their emotional isolation and the timelessness of their love.

VIDEOS

The following videos include stage footage of Sam Troughton (Romeo) and Mariah Gale (Juliet) performing the balcony scene (Act 2 Scene 2) in Goold's 2010 production, described by Dominic Maxwell as "so fresh it might never have been played before" The Times, 3 December 2010.

Trailers

Trailer: Romeo and Juliet 2010 © RSC Browse and license our images

Trailer 2: Romeo and Juliet 2010 © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

Production and rehearsal photos 

Galleries of images showing the play in rehearsal and performance, featuring Sam Troughton, Mariah Gale and Jonjo O'Neill.

Production photos

Act 3 Scene 3
Friar Laurence Art thou a man?

Friar Laurence (Forbes Masson) tries to calm Romeo (Sam Troughton) who is in despair after his banishment.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 1
Fighting between the Capulets and the Montagues breaks out on the street.

 

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 5
Romeo My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Romeo (Sam Troughton) meets Juliet (Mariah Gale) at the ball.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 5
Guests dancing at the Capulet masque ball.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 3
Lady Capulet Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?

Lady Capulet (Christine Entwisle) getting ready for the ball.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 2 Scene 2
Juliet ...Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Romeo (Sam Troughton) and Juliet (Mariah Gale) kiss on Juliet's balcony.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 2 Scene 4
Nurse But first let me tell ye, if you should lead her in a fool's
paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behaviour

The Nurse (Noma Dumezweni) warns Romeo (Sam Troughton) before delivering Juliet's message.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 2 Scene 5
Nurse Hie you hence to Friar Laurence's cell; there stays a husband to make you a wife.

After a good deal of delay, the Nurse (Noma Dumezweni) finally tells Juliet (Mariah Gale) Romeo's answer.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 2 Scene 6
Romeo Unfold this imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.

Romeo (Sam Troughton) and Juliet (Mariah Gale) are married in secret by Friar Laurence.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 1
Mercutio ...Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall
find me a grave man.

Romeo (Sam Troughton) holds the fatally wounded Mercutio (Jonjo O'Neill) in his arms.


Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 1
Romeo Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.

Romeo (Sam Troughton) avenges Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt (Joseph Arkley). 

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 5 Scene 3
Juliet What's here? a cup closed in my true love's hand?
Poison I see hath been his timeless end.

Juliet (Mariah Gale) awakes in the tomb to find Romeo dead beside her, having drunk poison.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 3 Scene 5
Lord Capulet Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church a'Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face

Lady Capulet (Christine Entwisle) watches as a furious Lord Capulet (Richard Katz) threatens to disown Juliet (Mariah Gale) if she refuses to marry Paris.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 5 Scene 3
Prince For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Both families gather to mourn Romeo and Juliet.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

Rehearsal photos

Mariah Gale (Juliet) and Sam Troughton (Romeo) rehearsing the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

The company in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Christine Entwisle (Lady Capulet) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Jonjo O'Neill (Mercutio) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Dyfan Dwyfor (Peter), Jonjo O'Neill (Mercutio), Christine Entwisle (Lady Capulet) and Richard Katz (Capulet) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Richard Katz (Capulet), Dyfan Dwyfor (Peter) and James Howard (Paris) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Sam Troughton (Romeo) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Jonjo O'Neill (Mercutio) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

David Carr (Escalus) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Noma Dumezweni (Nurse) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Noma Dumezweni (Nurse) and Sam Troughton (Romeo) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Sam Troughton (Romeo) and Jonjo O'Neill (Mercutio) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Simone Saunders (Lady Montague) and Dharmesh Patel (Gregory) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Sam Troughton (Romeo) in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, Courtyard Theatre.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

NEW YORK RESIDENCY

Goold's Romeo and Juliet was also performed as part of our 2011 New York residency. A 44-member ensemble performed five Shakespeare plays chosen from the 2009 and 2010 repertoire over a six week period at New York's Park Avenue Armory as part of Lincoln Center Festival 2011.

Performances took place in the Scarlet & Gray Theatre, a full-scale replica of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, specially built by the our theatre technicians and constructed in Park Avenue Armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall.

The interior entrance to the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, New York, flanked by stairways

The exterior of a red hexagonal structure with stairways leading to entrances


SYMMETRY AND SPACE: TOM SCUTT'S DESIGNS

Tom Scutt's design for the production was simple but powerful and enhanced by Howard Harrison's evocatively subdued lighting. Scutt and director Rupert Goold had a clear concept for the production:

“We conceived this as the story of two normal people, modern everyman characters who are martyred in their own Elizabethan story. I enjoyed using the symmetry and relative sparseness of the space to make some kind of epic, spiritual gesture. We tried placing Romeo and Juliet’s version of the stations of the cross around the stage, as if in a church erected to their memory.” Designs fit for Kanye and a future king – the stage worlds of Tom Scutt (Guardian website).

Group of masked revellers in period dress with a modern young couple holding hands at the centre, posed like a station of the cross

 

  • In the following galleries, you can see examples of Tom Scutt's costume and set designs, including small scale models of the sets (model boxes), for the 2010 production of Romeo and Juliet.
  • You can also discover more about Tom Scutt's work in the article ‘Design isn’t about drawing, but talking’ (The Stage website).

Costume gallery

Jonjo O'Neill (Mercutio) kisses his wig backstage, Romeo and Juliet, 2011, New York Residency. The idea of Mercutio having white/blond hair was in Tom Scutt's original costume design.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Prince Escalus (David Carr) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Prince Escalus (David Carr) has his breast-plate strapped on backstage in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for a party-goer (David Rubin) at the Capulet Ball in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Romeo (Sam Troughton) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Juliet (Mariah Gale) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010. For most of the production, Juliet was dressed in contemporary clothes but changed into an Elizabethan-style formal dress with elaborate high-backed ruff before taking the sleeping potion and for her suicide.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Lady Capulet (Christine Entwisle) at the Capulet Ball in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Lady Capulet (Christine Entwisle) backstage in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Lady Capulet (Christine Entwisle) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010. Here we see a 'farthingale', a frame worn under the skirt.
Discover more about costumes of the period in Clothing in Elizabethan England (British Library website).

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketches for Mercutio (Jonjo O’Neill) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010. 

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Act 1 Scene 4
Mercutio O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you

Mercutio (Jonjo O'Neill) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Tybalt (Joseph Arkley) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for the Nurse (Noma Dumezweni) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Lord Capulet (Richard Katz) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Tom Scutt's costume design sketch for Sampson (James Traherne) in Romeo and Juliet, 2010. The Capulet servant Sampson holds a military flail or ball and chain weapon.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery

Sets gallery

Model box of a set for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, designed by Tom Scutt.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Model box of a set for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, designed by Tom Scutt.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Model box of a set for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, designed by Tom Scutt.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Model box of a set for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, designed by Tom Scutt.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Model box of a set for Romeo and Juliet, 2010, designed by Tom Scutt.

Designed by Tom Scutt © RSC Browse and license our images

Set lighting position for Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Set designed by Tom Scutt and lighting by Howard Harrison © RSC Browse and license our images

Set lighting position for Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Set designed by Tom Scutt and lighting by Howard Harrison © RSC Browse and license our images

Set lighting position for Romeo and Juliet, 2010.

Set designed by Tom Scutt and lighting by Howard Harrison © RSC Browse and license our images
Launch Gallery
Theatrical poster for Romeo and Juliet 2010 showing modern-dressed young man on left of red play title and young woman on right , facing each other

CAST AND CREATIVES

COMPANY

Courtyard Theatre

Joseph Arkley - Tybalt

David Carr - Escalus

Noma Dumezweni - Nurse

Dyfan Dwyfor - Peter

Christine Entwisle - Lady Capulet

Mariah Gale - Juliet

Gruffudd Glyn - Balthasar

James Howard - Paris

Richard Katz - Lord Capulet

Debbie Korley - Lady

Forbes Masson - Friar Laurence

Jonjo O'Neill - Mercutio

Dharmesh Patel - Gregory

Peter Peverley - Friar John/Abraham/Watchman

Patrick Romer - Cousin Capulet/Apothecary/Constable

David Rubin - Lord Montague

Oliver Ryan - Benvolio

Simone Saunders - Lady Montague

James Traherne - Sampson/Watchman

Sam Troughton - Romeo

Kirsty Woodward - Lady

 

CREATIVES

 

Director – Rupert Goold

Designer - Tom Scutt

Lighting designer - Howard Harrison

Music and Sound - Adam Cork

Video and Projections - Lorna Heavey

Choreography - Georgina Lamb

Fight arranger - Terry King

 

The RSC's archive is held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. You can visit the Library and Archives there to look at production related information, including photos, videos of shows and stage management documents:

Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive homepage

You can search the RSC catalogue here: 

RSC performance database

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