In Shakespeare’s times, Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting would’ve been very challenging to perform with true passion. Firstly, this is because both of the characters are played by men, so it would have been hard to show the chemistry between the two characters .This is because, I feel, that men would find it a great deal harder to perform as a couple on stage than man and woman and because a man would find it harder to act as a female teenager just meeting there first love, and the actors have to kiss.
Also, in Shakespeare’s time, the actors were a lot more interactive with the audience. For example, if the audience didn’t like the performance they might throw food at the actors, or if the was someone drunk or acting loud, shouting how bad the actors are, the actors on stage may say something to, maybe, make the member of the audience look stupid.
In the more romantic or passionate moments between Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare has them speaking in rhyming couplets. In one very compassionate moment between the two they are actually sharing parts of a sonnet. This has an impact on the audience. It shows a how something good can come out of the two families who have been arguing for years, Romeo only came to gate crash after all. In my view, having Romeo and Juliet say a sonnet between them is very romantic and brings out there love a lot more than the language we speak today. Shakespeare makes something which happened over a long period of time, the ball, and only focus’ on it for a few moments, but the short meeting of Romeo and Juliet is shown longer than it truly is. I am aware of this as, again romantic, but necessary because it shows there love grow in front of us in a bit more detail. The ball is not a thing we need to see all of, only the few bits we do see, such as Tibalt telling his uncle he can not allow Romeo to stay at the ball.
Shakespeare also only has the main characters talk in rhyming couplets, not the servants who are in the play to show the different social classes there were and just to introduce how well the ball is wanted to go, and the effort put in to make it a success.
