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Hindustan Times
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Love-struck trucks and diggers: Estonia's take on 'Romeo and Juliet'
By Janis Laizans Love-struck trucks and diggers: Estonia's take on 'Romeo and Juliet' RUMMU, Estonia, - A production of "Romeo and Juliet" in Estonia uses a cast of vehicles to tell Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers, with a red Ford pickup taking on the role of Juliet, while her Romeo is a rally truck. 'I must say I came into it expecting it to be really silly, but it was really good. I really liked it," said Maia Maisate, a spectator, after the show. A disused limestone quarry in the Estonian countryside is the backdrop as more than a dozen vehicles, including city buses, fire engines, a lorry and a cement truck with hearts painted on it, drive around in front of makeshift viewer stands. Two excavators waved their mechanical arms at each other threateningly in a recreation of the fatal sword fight between Tybalt and Mercutio, and a car was thrown from a cliff. 'I would still say that even though it was cars, it felt really sweet and cute. Like when you had the scene where the cars were, you would assume, kissing, the energy was captured really well. The sweetness and the love," said Maia Pussim, another spectator. The production, which continues until Sunday, is without dialogue, although it is accompanied by fireworks and music, including the track "Lovefool" by Swedish group The Cardigans. "It's basically a big experiment about what it means to do Shakespeare today and whether we can find new ways to do it," said co-director Paavo Piik of Kinoteater, which put on the play. "We wanted to be very gentle with these big machines. This contrast is interesting for us. Is it possible to deliver emotions like love ?" This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
BBC News
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The elegance and eccentricity of Easter bonnets on parade
Traditionally, Easter was a time to wear new clothes. After the self-denial of Lent, it was a chance to celebrate in style - and represented the emergence of a new, reborn, Pepys wrote in his diary in 1662 about getting new clothes for his wife "against Easter" and Shakespeare's Mercutio asks, "Didst though not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter?"It was considered lucky to first wear new clothes to church, and many people would proudly display their new garments by taking a promenade afterwards through town - hence the Easter if a new outfit is beyond the budget - a newly trimmed hat would this was a sentiment indulged by the then London Tourist Board which obligingly ran annual Easter Bonnet take a look.
The Guardian
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in dance: Romeo and Juliet; Deepstaria
With its 537th performance by the Royal Ballet, Kenneth MacMillan's sumptuous Romeo and Juliet is back for its 60th anniversary season. Not much has changed since its premiere in 1965, with a 45-year-old Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, nearly 20 years her junior, as the star cross'd lovers. Nicholas Georgiadis's imposing designs, slightly revised in the 2000s, still move the action swiftly from a dusty Veronese square to the bedroom to the tomb – the costumes in dusty oranges, yellows, plum reds providing grandeur and vivid life. And the Royal Ballet company still absolutely understands the work's heady mix of impassioned naturalism and soaring classicism. Each detail is considered and performed with infinite care to Prokofiev's racing score. Reaction emerges from action. When Matthew Ball's Romeo first encounters Juliet (Yasmine Naghdi) at a ball, where she is supposed to be dancing with someone else, their entranced duet stops the other guests in their tracks. Each face registers shock; each member of the crowd has a view on what's happening. Equally, Joseph Sissens's Mercutio and Leo Dixon's Benvolio aren't stock figures. They are utterly convincing as lads about town and as Romeo's mates, expressing their relationship not in looks and slaps on the shoulder but through dancing that's at once technically sharp and dramatically shaded. Ryoichi Hirano's Tybalt isn't a generic bruiser but a frustrated, furious man, desperate to assert himself. It is all beautifully drawn, nothing wasted or lazy. Little grace notes are paid due heed. There's a marvellous moment at the start of Act 2 when Romeo dances in a circle, jumping lightly, flicking his hands with the pleasure of being alive. Ball makes it count; he's a dancer in his prime, taking the balcony scene in great arcs of exuberance, registering every note of Romeo's exhilaration, disillusion and eventual despair. His understanding with Naghdi (they've been dancing together since their school days) reveals itself in duets of sculpted loveliness. She dances beautifully, and acts with deep intelligence, charting Juliet's journey from silly, flirtatious girl to doomed heroine. Yet there's a flicker between Naghdi's thought and her movement; she never quite abandons herself in the way her partner does. Over at Sadler's Wells, Wayne McGregor, the Royal Ballet's current resident choreographer, has unveiled Deepstaria, his latest work for his own Company Wayne McGregor. It's a glorious piece, named after a rare jellyfish and danced in a set coated in Vantablack– a synthetic material that absorbs light – yet carved by Theresa Baumgartner's lighting design into dazzling channels of expressionistic black and white or turquoise depths. The subtle richness of the changing colours is as surprising as the darkness, or the odd notes in the recorded score, created by music producer Lexx and sound designer Nicolas Becker to mimic music played live. Yet the technology exists to showcase the nine remarkable dancers moving across a reflective floor. McGregor's choreography is densely varied, from a solo under dappled light to a long and sinuous duet for two men, to hands wafting like anemones and sea urchins. The dancers might be sinking in the deep or floating in space; their diaphanous forms constantly morph and beckon, pictures of light against the darkness, full of life and love. Star ratings (out of five)Romeo and Juliet ★★★★Deepstaria ★★★★ Romeo and Juliet is at the Royal Opera House, London, until 26 May
