Romeo and Juliet 2021

This week we went with the English GCSE's learners to The Globe to see a version of Romeo and Juliet. Now most of you will know by know I failed to pass my GCES (O level as it was then) five times simple because I could not say this was the best play ever written for the examiner. More importantly, I could not identify with neither Romeo or Juliet as main characters. As a teenager I never felt those wildly swinging emotions and simply could not get my head around their thought processes that lead them to take their own lives. As a parent and as a teacher I felt that this was not how I wanted my teenagers (that includes both my own children and my learners) or any teenagers come to that, to think or feel in this way. This is not and has never been my favourite of the plays written by Shakespeare.

I normally sit through the play with a fixed face of "ok, I am never going to get these hours back - but in the name of education I will suck it, and endure!" However, this time it was not like that at all. For the first time, I felt that the director had understood the teenagers and with the use of a e-board that displayed statics around teenager mental health, explained attachment theory and the consequences of government policy, I suddenly saw that somebody else saw this play as I did.

I know this is next sentences is going to go down in history - I actually enjoyed this production! There I said it. If there is ever a DVD of this production I will get it and you can judge for yourself, just what an insightful and understandable version this was. I know everyone in the group was taking about the closure of youth clubs leading to more trouble on the streets because there were less safe places to go. How the relationship between Juliet and her parents would drive her towards Romeo due to the lack of affection she had received from them and finally Romeo's flip flopping emotional state being clear signs that he was mental unwell and unstable.