Romeo and Juliet to be performed in English at Summer Shakespeare Festival
This Saturday, the Summer Shakespeare Festival will be concluding in Prague, with a special performance of Romeo and Juliet in English. The performance will take place in the courtyard of the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague’s Malá Strana neighbourhood. We spoke to the director of the show, Guy Roberts, about what’s in store this weekend.
What has it been like to work alongside the Summer Shakespeare Festival team in Prague this year?
“We are always so honoured to work with them, it’s our eighth year working with them. We give the Summer Shakespeare Festival an English language original Shakespeare performance every summer. We’re delighted this year to be at Hamu, it’s such a beautiful space, and it’s exactly like Verona, you feel like you’ve stepped into Italy with the white stone and the marble. There is a window on one of the walls that is almost exactly like Juliette’s window in Verona that you can see, so we use that in the show.”
Speaking of Verona, the play that you are going to be performing this year is Romeo and Juliette, perhaps one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays. Why was this play selected?
“We just thought that after Covid, and with everyone being isolated for so long, it was time to bring back a big, beautiful show filled with love and hope – a lot of tragedy and sadness, but the play is ultimately about hope and the power of love to transform us and make our lives better.”
What’s it been like to perform outside, since you’re performing in the courtyard, how do you cope with the extreme heat?
“There’s a line in Romeo and Juliette that says ‘these hot days, is the mad blood stirring’, and everyone is getting a bit crazy and anxious, and a little irritable during the heatwave, just like the characters are in the play. So life will be imitating art a little bit.”
“It’s definitely hot, and there is a lot of sweating on stage with the costumes! There’s a line in Romeo and Juliette that says ‘these hot days, is the mad blood stirring’, and everyone is getting a bit crazy and anxious, and a little irritable during the heatwave, just like the characters are in the play. So life will be imitating art a little bit. But there is a nice breeze that goes through the courtyard and we don’t start performing till 8:30pm, so hopefully things will be a bit cooler then.”
Why do you think it’s important to have an English performance here in Prague at the festival?
“The Czech Republic has a great tradition of Shakespeare and theatre in the Czech language, and so much of the population and many artists love Shakespeare in English as well, it’s the perfect complement to the great Czech tradition.”
“What’s important to remember is that the Czech Republic has a great tradition of Shakespeare and theatre in the Czech language, and so much of the population and many artists love Shakespeare in English as well, it’s the perfect complement to the great Czech tradition. There’s also a huge expatriate community in Prague that loves hearing Shakespeare in English, and so we think we bring the best of both worlds to the experience this summer.”
