The Sydney Shakespeare Company will be bringing the classic 'Romeo And Juliet' to the stage at the PACT Theatre from late September. This will be the company's fourth play since its inception in 2011.
Steven Hopley, producer, director and actor in the show, is excited to be taking on the task of staying true to Shakespeare. “In a way, this was always the production I always wanted to do,” Steven says. “I fell in love with 'Romeo and Juliet' as a teenager, and it was what turned me on to theatre and Shakespeare. It changed my life really.”
Before starting The Sydney Shakespeare Company and becoming its Artistic Director, Steven worked with other theatre companies on different plays, one of which included 'Romeo and Juliet'. He now has the cast to do it the way he always intended.
“A big cast, traditional costumes, and an emphasis on the text,” Steven says. “In a way I sort of feel like this is the culmination of the last 15 years of my career. It's been building to doing this. I always thought I would do 'Romeo and Juliet' again if I found the right leads. That was a big part of why I am doing it now. Once I found my Juliet I thought it might be the time, and I started looking around for Romeo. I saw him at a production in The New Theatre, 'The Real Thing', and that was my Romeo. I then started casting the rest.”
The cast of 18 people is the biggest they've had for any production of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. “They're a great cast,” Steven says. “Most Shakespeare plays can get away with a dozen people, but there are just certain plays that you just can't do with twelve people.”
Image © Rob StuddertThe producer, director, writer and actor feels quite content in his multiple roles in the cast and production. “I've done the Orson Welles thing enough times [to feel comfortable]. I'm kind of used to it now. I just have to plan in advance and make sure everything is taken care of.”
Steven and the crew are aiming to perform the play as if it has never been done before. “Some productions are like 'let's put it on like it has never been done before, but this time in a space-station.' We want to do it literally like it has never been done before, as if we were the first people to ever approach it. That way we manage to make it fresh and interesting for the audience who quite often go along to see a standard Shakespeare production and may not understand it because there is a certain disconnect, due to the assumption that they have seen it a hundred times, which is simply not the case.”
Steven has taken the necessary measures to ensure the play is this particular feel. “In a sense my signature style is to have no style. It's a no-frills approach to Shakespeare. I don't use concepts. My view as a director is to get myself out of the way, and to focus as much on the text as possible. It's all about the text, the actors, and the audience.”
