St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury

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In fair Verona, where we lay our scene…

… or in this case, Canterbury. We are in St Augustine’s Abbey which is where St Augustine came to from Rome. He was sent by Pope Gregory after Pope Gregory saw some British children being sold as slaves in Rome and he remarked that they looked more like angels than Angles, if that makes any sense. So we’re here and its beautiful; the ruins are just laid out behind us. We’ve set up the audience area on a barrow or a mound, the stage is at the bottom of that and behind you can see Canterbury cathedral in all its glory and all of the ruins of the abbey itself. There’s a menace; a group of boys playing football, but that I think they’ve been dispelled now.

It’s a massive change from the Globe; voices feel a lot muggier. It’s a lot more effort; people are trying not to strain voices but certainly the volume needs to be increased. The performance itself was great, slightly more laid back than the Globe and people bring their picnics. During the first brawl scene we had a whole parade of ambulances go past us which seemed to fit in perfectly with the Prince trying to control everyone, calm them down and stop the fighting. A pelting of rain came just at the right moment; when we were taking Juliet into the tomb at the end of the play we had a nice little shower which sent a shiver up everyone’s spines, I think.

The audience was a lovely mix of eager school kids, smiling pensioners and people you probably wouldn’t want to meet down a dark alleyway in Canterbury… There was a very small boy in the post show discussion who declared to us that he wanted to be Romeo and asked for some tips from Alan, which was good fun. He then proceeded to re-direct the fight scenes which was nice for all of us. There were other things; someone popped a champagne cork which came landing on stage, and then… poor Alan… just as he was about to take his potion as Romeo someone decided it was a perfect time to open a can of beer. So as he said “Here’s to my love…” (V.iii.119) and made to drink, we heard a “tssssh” noise in the background. I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose. I hope it wasn’t on purpose…

Canterbury’s great; it’s lovely, very sweet, and has a real Tudor feel to it, and I think the performance went very well. But we’re still just at the beginning...

Perri Snowdon

Have you seen the show? Post your thoughts on the Romeo and Juliet blog.

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