Romeo And Juliet

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Romeo And Juliet

ROMEO AND JULIET
Consumed by Fire
- by Scott Walters
I hate and I love. Why I do so, perhaps you ask.
I know not, but I feel it and I am in torment.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Too hot, too hot!
William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
For a love story, Romeo and Juliet has more violence and bloodshed than most TV mini-series. The play begins with a riot, ends with a double suicide, and in between has three murders. And all this takes place in the span of four short days.
Of course, when you're dealing with love and passion, you're operating on an elemental level. The funny thing is that they have their roots in the same soil. How many times have you seen love turn to hate, and vice versa, in the blink of an eye?
Love and hate are twin sons of different mothers, separated at birth. They have a doubleness. This ambiguity is reflected throughout Romeo and Juliet, whose language is riddled with oxymorons. O brawling love, O loving hate, Romeo cries in the play's very first scene, using a figure of speech and setting up a theme that will be played out during the next five acts.
Like the poles of an electrical circuit between which runs the high voltage of emotions, love and hate create a dialogue and a dialectic, a dynamic tension which powers the action and generates heat.
Hot Enough for You?
When I noticed that two of the plays this season had settings in Verona, I decided to find out a thing or two about the place. Reading the section on climate in Harold Rose's rather chatty book Your Guide to Northern Italy, I noted that Italy is very hot in summer and that Rose recommends that the smart traveler should avoid August if you can because it is the hottest month. Checking another book, I discovered that Rose, in a typically English way, was understating the severity of the summer weather rather considerably. The second book pointed out that there are times when Scirocco winds sweep Saharan conditions northward; winds which, by the time they reach Italy, bring humid, stifling weather with temperatures commonly topping the 100 degree mark.
After reading this, a great deal of the violence in Romeo and Juliet became more understandable: they're all short-tempered because of the heat! This is even noted by Benvolio when he warns Mercutio that The day is hot, and Capulet's abroad,/ And if we meet we shall not scape a brawl,/ For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. Unfortunately, he warns too late, and the brawl he seeks to avoid is met in...

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