Canterbury

These comments are the assistant director’s thoughts and ideas about the process of touring 'Romeo and Juliet'; they may change as this process progresses.

Notes from Canterbury ...

Canterbury marked the beginning of our tour. I've lived in London for over two years but as with all great cities it can have the effect of swallowing you up so that you rarely leave. This tour would be my opportunity to see the UK and despite enduring some mild mocking from the company for being a 'Canadian tourist' I was thrilled to tour the Cathedral, take a boat tour along the canal, visit the Roman museum and have English breakfast in a centuries old pub.

Henry VIII dissolved St. Augustine's Abbey in 1538, twenty-six years before Shakespeare was born and fifty-seven years before Romeo & Juliet was written. When the play was written the site would have looked in many ways as it does today. The ruins are vast, comprising of arches and pillars, the remainder of walls and down below ground the remnants of what was once a chapel now looking like a crumbling tomb with a great stone slab ideal for Juliet's body. Of course we couldn’t actually perform the scene amongst the ruins but the image was potent and Juliet took the time to lie there and seep in the surroundings. When I now think of the Capulet's monument that is what I see.

Aside from the busy street behind the audience, masked by trees that didn't entirely mask the noise and occasionally competed with the actors for attention, it was an ideal setting. The ruins stretched out behind the stage like an ancient city that resonated when The Prince addressed the audience at the beginning as "Verona's ancient citizens." (I.i.90)

Canterbury Cathedral could be seen in the distance and served as our reference to St. Peter's Church where Juliet is told she must marry the County Paris. As providence would have it, during one performance, after she takes the sleeping potion and is discovered dead, her family's mourning, was underscored by church bells. They tolled just as the Friar said "...in her best array bear her to church." (IV.v.81)

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