#i'm starting to understand the appeal

[aq2003]

archive dive #3: romeo and juliet (2000)

i fucking loved this so so much. ohhhhh it was so good. i am fond of the baz luhrmann movie but my one gripe w it is the portrayal of the titular characters feels too boring and here it's like. i can't even joke david tennant and alex gilbreath are perfect for the roles and i'm obsessed. i feel like this production really nails the tone most of all; when i was reading the play again i found it kinda fucked up and dark, like while it was funny at times (like any shakespeare play is) it very much wasn't this light fantastical sweeping romance, even at the beginning before the deaths start happening...and it feels like michael boyd thought the same when approaching the story. it feels slightly unconventional but also the original felt like that to me too, if that makes sense. anyway i loved the music and choreography in this soooo much and the seperate curved walls symbolizing the two families is just [chefs kiss]. it's a great production all around and i'm forever jealous of the people who got to watch it live

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david wrote about it in his romeo essay of course but i love the choice to have romeo narrate the prologue in the middle of the big brawl between the families at the beginning. the fact that it's a romeo after his death looking back on the tragedy with a sense of resignation but also serenity like yessss yessssssss <- sicko. he was doomed from the start because of the world he lived in etc etc

you can feel the teenage angst dripping off romeo the minute he walks onto the stage (after the prologue during his actual first scene). his back is to the camera as benvolio hugs him but the angst is still so palpable. it's coming off of him in waves. just the way that he walks. so real

"in sadness, cousin, i do love...........................a woman" why did he pause like that. this is so funny. what is the implication here.

david plays romeo's self-dramatizing lovesickness perfectly but also this was the exact energy i expected he would also bring to berowne and he surprisingly did not! i will talk about this in the LLL post but i will leave this note here for now

i love alex's voice an inordinate amount and i think it is just a perfect fit for juliet. i think a big thing with juliet is that she sort of acts/imagines herself as much older than she actually is (bc that's how her family sees her too) and her having that kind of raspy, deeper voice lends itself well to that

mercutio is a really interesting bit of this production because it's the one element i feel like is the least faithful to the text (or at least, whatever my reading of the text is). he's very clearly jealous, and a lot of his lines poking fun at romeo's love life feel way less humorous than they were originally written to be. like of course this mercutio is witty and fun which goes for basically any good mercutio but he's also a bit vindictive here! he's cynical about love specifically because of romeo's rejection of him! it's not bad and it def feeds into the tone the production is going for but it is still very Different to me

like by comparison you look at harold perrineau's mercutio (bombastic and campy and fun with this undercurrent of past tragedy to him) or dt's audio drama mercutio (filled w a lust for life without the actual lust. he's just here for a good time) and adrian's mercutio just feels like a whole different character. he even gets aggressive with romeo and pins him down for half of the queen mab speech and it's like mercutio we can find you another twink for you to make heart eyes at it's okay.

i wonder if the familiarity between mercutio and romeo + that line reading on "i do love a woman" a while back implies that they had some kind of history together? is that why mercutio feels so possessive and jealous over romeo? much to think about

the whole stage changing color back to blue during the dance when juliet and romeo first lay eyes on each other. Oh baby

the curved line the capulets form as they hold hands and walk off the stage after the dance imitating the curve of the wall <33

i'm obsessed with how alex delivers the "you kiss by the book" line. it's so funny. i think in general juliet is so interesting because she's less sensitive and "romantic" than romeo is, like if he's this emotional misunderstood poet than she's more of a grounded realist and is almost surprised by how her feelings bloom out of her. in her head it's like she's aware of romeo's unimpressive aspects (like his cookie cutter pickup lines and his mediocre kissing) but she's still enchanted with him anyway because (to steal a line from doctor who) he's the first person she's met who is remotely like her

i love the song the chorus does at the start of act 2, originally i kind of imagined it being done in the same way as the prologue but it would not make as much sense for ghost romeo to come back in now that the story is rolling along lol

the balcony scene... ahhh the balcony scene. i love how romeo starts off with his back pressed against the wall representing the montagues and then when he works up the courage, makes his way over to the capulet wall where juliet is standing at the top of. symbolism!

juliet hitting her head on the wall to punctuate every word of "wherefore art thou romeo" a) is a great way of approaching the text without over-sentimentality + the baggage of "oh these are some of shakespeare's most famous lines" and b) makes the line a lot more easy to understand for a random audience member watching it (like how she's not asking "where" but "why" and is frustrated by the situation she's found herself in)

the two of them reaching for each other over the wall during the "i would i were thy bird" bit made me go "awww :("

mercutio pushing romeo away when he screams "a plague o' both your houses" (while letting himself get carried away by benvolio)... like Oh yeah it's not even actually about the montagues and the capulets at this point he is blaming romeo specifically and i'm positively sure romeo is looking at him with the sad_wet_david_tennant_eyes.gif

the way romeo's voice breaks when he says "but mercutio's soul is a little way above our heads" someone hug him please. oh my god?

3.3 was done so well and i am so [screams loudly] abt it. just in general i think this scene is VERY important to romeo's character, bc this is basically where you understand his turmoil and why he feels like he can't live in a world without juliet. he's traumatized by his friend's death and thinks his soulmate hates him forever and that his life is over. and you get the sense maybe he was always teetering on the edge of a cliff too. it needs to be given the right amount of weight, it can't shy away from this horrible meltdown he's having. and i think david really does it justice in his portrayal of it. the way he paces around in this uncomfortable and frantic way like he doesn't want to be in his own body n how he screams and lashes out and tries to claw at his skin. it is so heartbreaking thank u david i'm so fucked up now

and like the way that friar lawrence takes the dagger from romeo and goes on his whole spiel about how he needs to man up and stop crying and this just makes romeo start crying harder like oh my god. Ohhhhhhhh my god i actually need to be shot

somewhat delving into hc territory but i think romeo (dt's version especially) is very sensitive and seeks out love and affection wherever he can find it bc his parents were emotionally neglectful towards him (while friar lawrence was far more understanding and attentive by comparison, and generally much more of an actual father figure towards him). but even then friar lawrence has his moments of "stop having those stupid girly feelings romeo". i feel like juliet is the only person in the play who doesn't see romeo's emotions as unseemly or ridiculous

i was reading the prompt book alongside watching this and they changed juliet's line "love, lord, ay husband, friend" to "love, lord, my husband, friend" as if that line couldn't get more tragic. my husband. my friend. fuck!!

also. guys i need lord capulet DEAD and GONE. clean shot. ok anyways

one of, if not my favorite scene in the play is in 4.3 where juliet monologues about what could go wrong before drinking the sleeping potion. it's like... she has to be incredibly brave to even get by in her life, whether that be her relationship with romeo or her father threatening her or her accepting the potion from friar lawrence in the first place. her life is actively scary in a way that romeo's isn't and obeying her family would be so much easier but she still doesn't give in and stop fighting. bc her life is hers and she won't let her one choice she made for herself be taken away from her. but here all of that bravery falls away because she basically has to give up and surrender. she's just left with herself and a drink that will basically kill her and it's so genuinely fucking terrifying for her and it makes me want to eat rocks. she is just so young and scared and she has to look death in the face for a chance of freedom and it's so fucking sad because you know it's not going to work and she's doomed by the narrative

AND THE STAGE TURNS BLUE WHEN JULIET HALLUCINATES TYBALT'S GHOST. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. SHE'S SO TERRIFIED AND RIGHTFULLY SO. SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING COULD GO WRONG BUT SHE DOES IT ANYWAY. BUT WE KNOW SHE'S DEAD. SHE'S BEEN DEAD FROM THE BEGINNING.

anyway that scene was cut out in the baz luhrmann movie but it's here in this production which makes me very happy, as happy as i can be about this very upsetting scene where this young girl is finally overwhelmed by her fear of death

mentioning another thing david wrote about in his essay but romeo in act 5 isn't overindulgent and emotional anymore just determined and driven towards his end. but also actually watching it, for me it's just so so sad because it's like. you want that overemotional romeo back, the romeo that was coming up with love poetry on the spot or crying over being separated from juliet. at that point he still wanted to live for her but now it's like he's filled with this cold finality of "oh, i can only be together with her in death. and there is nothing i have left to do but to make that happen"

romeo's final speech to juliet. david tennant i'm in your walls

juliet's dying gasps/sobs as she sinks into the grave with romeo in her arms. alex gilbreath i'm in your walls

the light of the stage turning blue as the ghosts of juliet and romeo come out of the grave and exit the stage together as their parents agree to resolve the conflict between the families... (the only other times it turned blue were when ghost romeo came out to narrate the prologue, when romeo and juliet first meet each other, and right before juliet drinks the sleeping potion). i am sick

the music at the end of the play/during the curtain call is so melancholy and beautiful I AM SICK

such a good production. fuck

[mandareeboo]

I wanna say that like 80-90% of the time I just feel like a guy bein' a dude, but then there's this 10-20% where I just feel like. A goblin. A werewolf. A certified creechur. I can't really extrapolate it better than that with my limited vocab.

Most of the time I wanna grill and learn woodworking and make puns. Sometimes I wanna gnaw on femurs and scuttle around and be indecipherable but approachable as an Entity. And I don't really know what that means yet tbh.

[galadriel-blue]

If the last episode of trop season 2 turns me into a Saurondriel shipper I will make a public apology. I'm not kidding-

[quatregats]

Huh. Maybe I should actually run away and join a boat crew

[buttercupshands]

The way I approach love stories is so interesting, like I care not for both sexual and romantic part, both don't exactly need to be present for you to see that characters trust each other and feel safe

Same with family, platonic stuff and friendships, feelings of trust and whatever else worth so much in all of this

Love story being a love story just means it'll happen faster and more... Boldly?? Bc that's the main focus and all

Also since people love romance so much you get more stuff in the fandom win/win

Although I'd say it took me a loooong time to get into anything, because I rarely see something and go THAT'S A SHIP! nah, that's a friendship, that's cute and sweet

Then we have toxic stuff and that's the intoxicating codependency that makes me want to analyze it all, like wow those characters are horrible to each other

But I usually have like two to balance each other, bc as funny toxic stuff is, I want some sweet stuff be it a friendship or a healthy ship

[flufflecat]

Got to stolen century in my relisten and started tearing up at work because of magnus carving the duck. Just me in the back room, crying over the dish sink for normal reasons.

[heresiae]

bought my first pokemon game. at 39. for my gameboy pocket.

how much late is not better than never? ^^'

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Me, when Sebastian joins my party for the first time: Okay, this time I'm not going to forget about you, Sebastian. I'm going to make an effort to use you a lot this playthrough so I can better understand you.

Also me, immediately forgetting about Sebastian while finishing Act 2 and making it halfway through Act 3 before I finally notice his Faith quest: ......................Oh. Right. My bad.

[marshmellowtea]

i do headcanon him as a cis man but i do also want to impregnate him

[amrv-5]

seeing all this fellow travelers content… feeling Intrigued… Looking Respectfully……. can i ask what it is & would you recommend?

HELLO!!!!! Okay yes I would recommend, I thought it was a great watch, I enjoyed myself! I have more thoughts on it but I'll save 'em cause spoilers--generally: It follows a number of queer relationships / characters over the course of the Lavender Scare through the 1980s. Its primary focus is the relationship between Hawkins, a WWII vet and midlevel govt. bureaucrat; and Tim, a congressional staffer fresh out of college. They meet during the height of the Lavender Scare and begin a fraught romance as they struggle with their own careers in DC, political complicity, and identities personal and public. The show covers about 30 years of their lives together (and apart). Go into it expecting solid performances (incredible Jonathan Bailey vehicle, at the very least) and (imo) fun if slightly uneven structuring, but also know (I don't want to sell it as Fun Gay Love Story!) by virtue of time period and what it's most interested in, story spends most of its runtime trying to show how national attitudes and even seemingly very localized political machinations impacted the lives of queer and especially queer Black people.

[lunar-years]

same anon; i was imagining it as a surprise for keeley! she's maybe been having a rough week or two work wise, and jamie and roy want to do something nice for her. jamie has the guy that did the wonder kid/roy kunt jerseys on speed dial.

absolutely terrific, no notes

[brothersonahotelbed]

love remembering the times i said i hated the queue function and will never use it, then cut to me adding 20 items to my queue

[aprilmr]

I adore his face here

[jungleboy-cruise]

I want a children's movie that teaches children how to be kind and caring but specifically for children with low or no sense of empathy. Mental disorders that cause little to no empathy aren't uncommon in children but people pretend it doesn't exist. Everything that does teach children how to be kind and caring speak to their sense of empathy by telling stories like "John was mean to Madison and Madison started to cry so John said sorry because Madison crying made him feel sad" and there's a whole percentage of children who CAN'T understand that. They need to be told Why not be told "won't you be sad if she's sad?" because the answer is no! They don't care! We need to tell them why they have to care! I want a movie for this purpose.

[arolesbianism]

Was going to do some oni file digging but got too distracted playing the actual video game. Anyways look at her <3

[subway-to-puppydom]

I want to be told that I'm doing good. To be held through each needle prick, every euphoric day and every day of dysphoria.

I want to get more marks littering my stomach from each injection. I want it to look like a sea of stars, dotting the path of where I'm headed.

I know I want this. I know you want to see me happy, and I do too! It's just... scary. To finally be here, starting T. I love it, I love how it's making me feel, I want to continue it for as long as I'm able.