In the dramatic play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, two teens fall in love and marry despite the feud between their two households. Set in Verona, Italy during the late 1500's, Romeo, a Montague, meets Juliet, a Capulet. They fall in love and marry although their families hate each other. And because of feud and the blinding self-interest of the adults, it leads to their fateful demise. The play of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular and most widely known play of all time. This play has been performed worldwide. In 1968, a film director, Franco Zeferelli, designed a replica of what he thought Shakespeare's play was like. He won many Academy Awards for the movie. Then, in 1996, another film director, Baz Lurhmann, portrayed Romeo and Juliet as a contemporary version, just as Shakespeare did in his day. Critics argue on if Baz Luhrmann's version was more of Shakespeare's intent than Franco Zeferelli's version.
In my opinion, I believe that Luhrmann's version was more to Shakespeare's intent than Zeferelli's version because it had a contemporary setting. Shakespeare meant for almost all of the plays to be colorful, fast paced and contemporary.
William Shakespeare designed Romeo and Juliet as a contemporary play. Shakespeare did not originally write Romeo and Juliet. It was passed down from generation to generation by mouth. He decided to make it into a play. He created it in a contemporary setting to help the people of his day understand the story better. The style of this play was fast paced and colorful to bring out the feeling of the characters better. A great scene that expresses both color and speed is the Capulet party scene.
In the play, Shakespeare was very focused on fast paced movement. Capulet was a good example of how quick everything went. "Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes unplagued with corns will walk about with you A hall, a hall! Give room! And foot it, girls! More light, you knaves, and turn the tables up, and quench the fire; the room is grown too hot!" Capulet yelled for every girl and woman to dance.
