On the 7 March, a group of Year 9 students went to The Globe Theatre to see a production of Romeo and Juliet. 

When we arrived at The Globe, it was rainy and wet outside, which made it seem like it would be difficult standing outside for 90 minutes! 

The overall tone of the play is generally very sad (as it is a tragedy) but there were some moments of humour, in the form of some amusing characters like Juliet’s nurse. 

One of the interesting things about this version was that a few characters were a different gender to what Shakespeare wrote originally. For example, Tybalt Capulet (Juliet’s cousin) was played as a female, which was interesting to watch on stage and Romeo’s friend Benvolio was also played as a woman, which was a interesting choice on the company and director’s behalf. The good thing about this play is that there are so many ways you can interpret it, and that is why it’s still one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays, and this version was definitely different from other versions at the Globe. 

The original play is two hours long, but this company managed to whittle the time down to ninety minutes, and I think that in that shorter time, the story felt more continuous and it went by quicker, which is a good thing. 

One more thing that made this version different is the fact they modernised some aspects, for example, they had some modern dancing at some points in the play, which also shows how different all versions of this story is. 

Overall, I thought it was a great experience and as I have never seen a proper production of the play, it was a new experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think the rest of us did too.