Writers: Lily Roberts and Lara Lawman
It’s a neat idea to explore Rosaline – Romeo’s former love. Right up to the day he meets Juliet, he’s been wandering sleepless and lovelorn, composing rhyming couplets to this paragon we never see. But in Rosaline and Juliet, presented as part of the Camden Fringe, there she is, moaning to Juliet, her cousin and best friend, about this guy who keeps proposing to her. She refuses to reveal his name, but we quickly figure out he’s one and the same guy who Juliet has just met, near the fish tank, she adds, in a coy reference to the Baz Luhrmann film.
Lily Roberts and Lara Lawman know their Shakespeare and do a good job of reworking the plot for their two-hander. Roberts in particular presents a convincing Rosaline, sexily dressed, sharp and worldly and speaking for the main part in modern colloquial English. In the course of an hour, we see her adapt to the new situation once Juliet has confessed the identity of her new love, and there is much humour to be got out of the situation, as she asks incredulously about Juliet wanting to marry him when she’s known him for less than 24 hours. It’s a good point, sharpened by the fact that we have heard Rosaline’s account of his persistent wooing.
There’s also a comic scene in which Juliet asks her advice about sex. But the ultimate question hangs over the comedy: will the play go for the same tragic outcome as Shakespeare’s? There’s a nice scene in which the cousins plot to duck out of the whole marriage thing and go off travelling. But in the end, fate (or ‘your terrible fucking decisions’, as Rosaline puts it) comes for Juliet.
It’s much more difficult to rewrite the character of Juliet, given Shakespeare has already given such a warm, emotionally rounded portrait of a very young woman in love. Lawman’s part is, therefore, a rather thankless one as to play second fiddle to Rosaline, she is forced to play shallow and entitled. It doesn’t help that she has to code-switch from Shakespeare’s well-known lines to modern demotic. She becomes a sort of Miranda meets Catherine Tate, either arch or squirming with embarrassment.
There’s lots of fun to be had along the way, however.
Runs until 1 August 2024
Camden Fringe runs until 25 August 2024
Lots of fun
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