A new twist on a classic tale.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an iconic tale of star-crossed lovers, and in just a few weeks, it will be brought to life once more by Auckland Theatre Company.
Although if you’re expecting a classic performance, you’re in for a shock – instead you’ll witness a fast-passed thriller set in 1960’s Milan, complete with Kiwi accents.
The titular characters are played by Theo David and Phoebe McKellar and the two joined Jack Tame to delve into the development of the show and what it’s like to bring this new variation to life.
Performances are running from the 15th of July through to the 9th of August at ASB Waterfront Theatre – tickets are available here.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at b It is.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
A classic story, the classic story of boy meets girl,
their families, you know, hate each other, chaos since Hughes.
But Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet really is the tale of
star cross lovers. And in just a few weeks the
story is going to be brought to the stage by
Auckland Theater Company. But this is not your grandparents Shakespeare, No, no,
(00:34):
this is a fast paced thriller set in the nineteen
sixties Milan with Kiwi accents and soon to be the
Romeo and the Julieta Romeo and Julietta Theo, David and
Phoebe mckella, and they are here with us on Newstalks
heid me this morning, Kildercordawa and welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here. Whatdding Jack, So nice to be
(00:56):
speaking with you both. Theo I'm going to kick off
with you just explain to us how different is this
production of Romeo and Juliet to the one that we
might have seen two hundred years ago.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, for starters, you've got men and women in the cast,
because I know back then it was probably all men.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So that's nice. But like you said, this is set
in kind of nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Sixties Milanese style, So think high fashion, think culture, I
think really hot passion. And like you said as well,
you know, we've got all the actors retaining their accent,
so it's not going to be some British broadcast network
vision of Roman Juliet.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
This is a Roman Juliet produced in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh fun, phoebe. What about the language? Is it still
very much like Romeo Romeo? Where for out there Romeo?
Or is it like Romeo Romeo? Wee you Wet Boy?
Speaker 5 (01:47):
I mean I guess that the language is very much
the same. And the intention I mean wee Wet Boy
was valid back then and still valid now. So the
language is the same, the intention is heightened.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, it's what four hundred years I think since this
production from this first stage, which is remarkable. But it
really is like kind of like I was saying, it
is the story of Starcross lovers, the story of boy
meets girl. But theo you've done like heaps of Shakespearean
plays over the years, right, like you've played well, I
think you've been Henry the Fifth and Romey and Juliet.
(02:24):
You've been a much ado about nothing, You've been Northello.
So what is it about Shakespeare that you love so much?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Ah? Just language, a just as words like I mean,
I'll be honest, I like the employment that comes with
it too, our life. But just you know, he has
this way of explaining things that we don't. We don't
talk like that anymore. Yeah, we're in the era of
the emoji or the meme. You know, we can send
that and try and communicate. But you know, back then
he was saying stuff like, you know, but all my
(02:53):
fortunes at my foot, I'll lay and I'll follow you
throughout the world.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Like, you know, that's pretty romantic. But you would never
hear anyone say that right now.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, it is quite kind of profound. How do you
feel about the language, Phoebe, How does this compare to
a different kind of production, one one that would use
modern language. How do you find telling a Shakespearean story
in Shakespeare's language?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Yeah, I mean the language is so rich in all
of its imagery, Like you can really roll around as
an actor, just roll around in the in the words
that He's gifted you and their a gift to the
audience as well, because they might be foreign to their
audiences there. But you really understand the poetry of it,
(03:35):
and it is all poetry. Basically, Romeo and Juliet is
all poetry and most of it's in verse.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, how do you find do you find the
rhythm of it difficult to get into or does that
kind of help once you're in the production help with
the flow of the production?
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Do you find phobe the rhythm one hundred percent helps
learn lines very much, so much easier than anything else
because it just kind of gets you into that poetry
and that emotion.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Immediately.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
And then yeah, the show itself is so fast, the
journey that they go on is so fast, so that
just kind of the verse keeps the heartbeat alive.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
And just ticking.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, yeah, so it kind of drives it forward throughout. Absolutely,
I can imagine that that when you're playing Romeo and Juliet,
mstry is super important. So can you talk to us
about the process, process of being of being cast as
Romeo and and how you guys try and kind of
nurture the chemistry on stage together.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
We well, we're quite lucky.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
We've we've known we were going to play these characters
for about a year, yew so, and we did our
kind of callback audition together of us. So I think
there was something in that audition that may Ben go, oh,
let's maybe this is the relationship with nurture. And then
just at different points throughout the past year, you know,
we did a photoshop together, and we shot the trainer
(05:05):
together and that was like a nice slow build up
before we got into the rehearsal room.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
But there's a lot We've got Ben helping us with that.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
An we have an intimacy coordinator Lara, who kind of
helps cultivate you know what the touch choreography is, what
kind of because this might be all that kind of stuff.
So that does very much it's like a dance. Yeah,
it's like learning dance steps so that where you're not
well for that, where you don't just throw yourself into
(05:35):
it if you don't feel like it, but also so.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
That you just have these little touch points that you
can get to. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Right, they kind of the kind of spark. It ll
kind of mean continuity or something with that relationship. So
the Ben you're you're referencing as Benjamin Kilby Henson, who's
the director of this production of Romeo and Juliet. But
how have you found it? Phoebe? Because I can look
from an outsider this perspective of someone with no acting chops,
I can imagine that's quite a high pressure scenario to
be put in an environment where you are trying to
(06:03):
develop chemistry with someone in quite a public way.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Now, I feel like Ben himself has is an amazing director,
and the way that the room has run, like his
process and his preparation has made it so, I mean,
I think easy for us to actually just walk in
and then find this language of intimacy together with his
(06:32):
outside eye of just fine tuning and within the world
of discovery, so we never lose that play that the
chemistry is still alive and there's always more to be discovered,
which is a gift.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So tell me more about this intimacy coordinate. I'm fascinated.
I'm fascinated by this, and I know zero about how
an intimacy coordinator actually works. How does what is the
role mabe and how does that kind of work in
a production like this.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, so the intimacy coordinator kind of comes in and
we're because we had all the photo shirts and stuff,
any kind of intimate touch, you essentially choreograph it and
give yourself a really good base whilst talking about is
it feather touch or is it like a muscle touch
(07:25):
or is it bone touch? And you always have to
check in with your other actor, almost like a stunt
of going, yeah, how do you feel today?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Away?
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Okay, like yeah, and re checking in, and then you
kind of make the the goalposts essentially, and then within
what you've discussed and the world that you've created together
with that touch, you can kind of play in there,
(07:56):
which is fad.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I see. So you don't want to be too prescriptive
that again speaking just like you have to forgive me
guys as a total amateur year, but speak, I would
have thought, you don't want to be like you want
to set the goalposts in an appropriate distance, right, because you
don't want to coordinate it to the point that you
kind of suck the romance or the serendipity or the
(08:17):
kind of measure that it is a balance. I would
have thought there.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, And it's just to keep everyone safe too,
because you know, you don't want to be you hear
stories all the time, but it's just to make sure
we know that my hand is going to go here
and it's not going to go any higher or any lower,
and it just takes all that anxiety away for everyone
as well.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And it's lot of people. Yeah, yeah, no, not even
twenty years ago probably.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So yeah, sorry I interrupted you there. What were you say?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Oh, just I intimates her coordinators are. They're not just
for like romantic relationships either. You know, there's a lot
of maternal slash paternal relationships in the show. They help
kind of cultivate that language as well.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Yeah, Like I had a meeting with Lara and the
nurse because there's a very physical relationship there and that
really helped play the groundwork for the round that we
get to play in.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah right, yeah, nice. So Phoebe tell us about the
fashion because setting it in Milan in the sixties has
a very distinct look.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yes, lots of bright colors, bowl pattern everything's a lot
of a lot of tight pants for the men and
then the ball outfits. I mean, you'll just have to
come see it, I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean this is part of the
the decision to set it in the sixties. They is
very much because it allows for like the most kind
of impressive visuals possible, right.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, it's the era of Romanticism, it's the era of
rebellion and like, because we're already so removed from the
Shakespearean language, so you could set it in a modern setting,
that would it sounds a bit weird to see someone,
you know, dressed in the hoodie speaking Shakespeare. So what
Ben's done is quite amazing because he's kind of given
(10:13):
you a step into the Shakespeare and Ruld by setting
it maybe one step away from us, and then that's
kind of a launch pat into the language.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great way to do it.
So it's a story about young people, essentially Romeo and Juliet.
I think they're super young, aren't they? Or the characters
are super young. So when you guys are staging a
performance like this, do you do you do you hope
that it will bring young people to the theater? Like,
is that a consideration given there are so many different
(10:44):
forms of entertainment kind of vying for people's attention at
the moment, especially young people. Is this the kind of
production you think that that you know that that might
help to inspire the beans of the future or inspire
young people who might not usually go to the theater
to head along and be inspired.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Absolutely, I mean and and the way that Ben has,
I guess cut down the script it is the first
time I read it, I was like forty six pages
and I was like, this is so short for a Shakespeare.
But I think it's also what we need and what
our younger brands need.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We don't have.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
The the will to sit and listen to all of
that poetry, but it just rockets forward with the narrative
and the emotion, and I think that will really.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Hit so well with the younger audience.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah yeah, yea, so good. So it's been cut down
a little bit. It's been set in the nineteen sixties.
It sounds like so much dumb but fun. But THEO
just promise us, does it have a happy ending?
Speaker 3 (11:54):
You know, we're going to play it like there's a
happy ending, you know, there's it's not a tragedy until
it's a tragedy.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
So yeah, there's going to be and yeah there they're going.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
To fall in love and it's going to be a
big there's another stuff that happens too.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, it will be some but the problem but.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
After yeah yeah, look, no promises, but no, it sounds
like so much fun, guys, and a great way to
reimagine one of the all time classics. Thank you so
much for being with us this morning. O, David and
Phoebe McKellar are the stars of Auckland Theater Companies new
production of Romeo and Juliet. It's fast paced, it is
set in the nineteen sixties in Milan. We're going to
(12:34):
have all the details, including we can get tickets up
on the News Talks EDB website.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at b It is.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
A classic story, the classic story of boy meets girl,
their families, you know, hate each other, chaos since Hughes.
But Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet really is the tale of
star cross lovers. And in just a few weeks the
story is going to be brought to the stage by
Auckland Theater Company. But this is not your grandparents Shakespeare, No, no,
(00:34):
this is a fast paced thriller set in the nineteen
sixties Milan with Kiwi accents and soon to be the
Romeo and the Julieta Romeo and Julietta Theo, David and
Phoebe mckella, and they are here with us on Newstalks
heid me this morning, Kildercordawa and welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here. Whatdding Jack, So nice to be
(00:56):
speaking with you both. Theo I'm going to kick off
with you just explain to us how different is this
production of Romeo and Juliet to the one that we
might have seen two hundred years ago.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, for starters, you've got men and women in the cast,
because I know back then it was probably all men.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So that's nice. But like you said, this is set
in kind of nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Sixties Milanese style, So think high fashion, think culture, I
think really hot passion. And like you said as well,
you know, we've got all the actors retaining their accent,
so it's not going to be some British broadcast network
vision of Roman Juliet.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
This is a Roman Juliet produced in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh fun, phoebe. What about the language? Is it still
very much like Romeo Romeo? Where for out there Romeo?
Or is it like Romeo Romeo? Wee you Wet Boy?
Speaker 5 (01:47):
I mean I guess that the language is very much
the same. And the intention I mean wee Wet Boy
was valid back then and still valid now. So the
language is the same, the intention is heightened.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, it's what four hundred years I think since this
production from this first stage, which is remarkable. But it
really is like kind of like I was saying, it
is the story of Starcross lovers, the story of boy
meets girl. But theo you've done like heaps of Shakespearean
plays over the years, right, like you've played well, I
think you've been Henry the Fifth and Romey and Juliet.
(02:24):
You've been a much ado about nothing, You've been Northello.
So what is it about Shakespeare that you love so much?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Ah? Just language, a just as words like I mean,
I'll be honest, I like the employment that comes with
it too, our life. But just you know, he has
this way of explaining things that we don't. We don't
talk like that anymore. Yeah, we're in the era of
the emoji or the meme. You know, we can send
that and try and communicate. But you know, back then
he was saying stuff like, you know, but all my
(02:53):
fortunes at my foot, I'll lay and I'll follow you
throughout the world.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Like, you know, that's pretty romantic. But you would never
hear anyone say that right now.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, it is quite kind of profound. How do you
feel about the language, Phoebe, How does this compare to
a different kind of production, one one that would use
modern language. How do you find telling a Shakespearean story
in Shakespeare's language?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Yeah, I mean the language is so rich in all
of its imagery, Like you can really roll around as
an actor, just roll around in the in the words
that He's gifted you and their a gift to the
audience as well, because they might be foreign to their
audiences there. But you really understand the poetry of it,
(03:35):
and it is all poetry. Basically, Romeo and Juliet is
all poetry and most of it's in verse.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, how do you find do you find the
rhythm of it difficult to get into or does that
kind of help once you're in the production help with
the flow of the production?
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Do you find phobe the rhythm one hundred percent helps
learn lines very much, so much easier than anything else
because it just kind of gets you into that poetry
and that emotion.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Immediately.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
And then yeah, the show itself is so fast, the
journey that they go on is so fast, so that
just kind of the verse keeps the heartbeat alive.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
And just ticking.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, yeah, so it kind of drives it forward throughout. Absolutely,
I can imagine that that when you're playing Romeo and Juliet,
mstry is super important. So can you talk to us
about the process, process of being of being cast as
Romeo and and how you guys try and kind of
nurture the chemistry on stage together.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
We well, we're quite lucky.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
We've we've known we were going to play these characters
for about a year, yew so, and we did our
kind of callback audition together of us. So I think
there was something in that audition that may Ben go, oh,
let's maybe this is the relationship with nurture. And then
just at different points throughout the past year, you know,
we did a photoshop together, and we shot the trainer
(05:05):
together and that was like a nice slow build up
before we got into the rehearsal room.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
But there's a lot We've got Ben helping us with that.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
An we have an intimacy coordinator Lara, who kind of
helps cultivate you know what the touch choreography is, what
kind of because this might be all that kind of stuff.
So that does very much it's like a dance. Yeah,
it's like learning dance steps so that where you're not
well for that, where you don't just throw yourself into
(05:35):
it if you don't feel like it, but also so.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
That you just have these little touch points that you
can get to. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Right, they kind of the kind of spark. It ll
kind of mean continuity or something with that relationship. So
the Ben you're you're referencing as Benjamin Kilby Henson, who's
the director of this production of Romeo and Juliet. But
how have you found it? Phoebe? Because I can look
from an outsider this perspective of someone with no acting chops,
I can imagine that's quite a high pressure scenario to
be put in an environment where you are trying to
(06:03):
develop chemistry with someone in quite a public way.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Now, I feel like Ben himself has is an amazing director,
and the way that the room has run, like his
process and his preparation has made it so, I mean,
I think easy for us to actually just walk in
and then find this language of intimacy together with his
(06:32):
outside eye of just fine tuning and within the world
of discovery, so we never lose that play that the
chemistry is still alive and there's always more to be discovered,
which is a gift.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So tell me more about this intimacy coordinate. I'm fascinated.
I'm fascinated by this, and I know zero about how
an intimacy coordinator actually works. How does what is the
role mabe and how does that kind of work in
a production like this.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Yeah, so the intimacy coordinator kind of comes in and
we're because we had all the photo shirts and stuff,
any kind of intimate touch, you essentially choreograph it and
give yourself a really good base whilst talking about is
it feather touch or is it like a muscle touch
(07:25):
or is it bone touch? And you always have to
check in with your other actor, almost like a stunt
of going, yeah, how do you feel today?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Away?
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Okay, like yeah, and re checking in, and then you
kind of make the the goalposts essentially, and then within
what you've discussed and the world that you've created together
with that touch, you can kind of play in there,
(07:56):
which is fad.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I see. So you don't want to be too prescriptive
that again speaking just like you have to forgive me
guys as a total amateur year, but speak, I would
have thought, you don't want to be like you want
to set the goalposts in an appropriate distance, right, because you
don't want to coordinate it to the point that you
kind of suck the romance or the serendipity or the
(08:17):
kind of measure that it is a balance. I would
have thought there.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, And it's just to keep everyone safe too,
because you know, you don't want to be you hear
stories all the time, but it's just to make sure
we know that my hand is going to go here
and it's not going to go any higher or any lower,
and it just takes all that anxiety away for everyone
as well.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And it's lot of people. Yeah, yeah, no, not even
twenty years ago probably.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So yeah, sorry I interrupted you there. What were you say?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Oh, just I intimates her coordinators are. They're not just
for like romantic relationships either. You know, there's a lot
of maternal slash paternal relationships in the show. They help
kind of cultivate that language as well.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Yeah, Like I had a meeting with Lara and the
nurse because there's a very physical relationship there and that
really helped play the groundwork for the round that we
get to play in.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah right, yeah, nice. So Phoebe tell us about the
fashion because setting it in Milan in the sixties has
a very distinct look.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yes, lots of bright colors, bowl pattern everything's a lot
of a lot of tight pants for the men and
then the ball outfits. I mean, you'll just have to
come see it, I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean this is part of the
the decision to set it in the sixties. They is
very much because it allows for like the most kind
of impressive visuals possible, right.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, it's the era of Romanticism, it's the era of
rebellion and like, because we're already so removed from the
Shakespearean language, so you could set it in a modern setting,
that would it sounds a bit weird to see someone,
you know, dressed in the hoodie speaking Shakespeare. So what
Ben's done is quite amazing because he's kind of given
(10:13):
you a step into the Shakespeare and Ruld by setting
it maybe one step away from us, and then that's
kind of a launch pat into the language.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great way to do it.
So it's a story about young people, essentially Romeo and Juliet.
I think they're super young, aren't they? Or the characters
are super young. So when you guys are staging a
performance like this, do you do you do you hope
that it will bring young people to the theater? Like,
is that a consideration given there are so many different
(10:44):
forms of entertainment kind of vying for people's attention at
the moment, especially young people. Is this the kind of
production you think that that you know that that might
help to inspire the beans of the future or inspire
young people who might not usually go to the theater
to head along and be inspired.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Absolutely, I mean and and the way that Ben has,
I guess cut down the script it is the first
time I read it, I was like forty six pages
and I was like, this is so short for a Shakespeare.
But I think it's also what we need and what
our younger brands need.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We don't have.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
The the will to sit and listen to all of
that poetry, but it just rockets forward with the narrative
and the emotion, and I think that will really.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Hit so well with the younger audience.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah yeah, yea, so good. So it's been cut down
a little bit. It's been set in the nineteen sixties.
It sounds like so much dumb but fun. But THEO
just promise us, does it have a happy ending?
Speaker 3 (11:54):
You know, we're going to play it like there's a
happy ending, you know, there's it's not a tragedy until
it's a tragedy.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
So yeah, there's going to be and yeah there they're going.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
To fall in love and it's going to be a
big there's another stuff that happens too.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, it will be some but the problem but.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
After yeah yeah, look, no promises, but no, it sounds
like so much fun, guys, and a great way to
reimagine one of the all time classics. Thank you so
much for being with us this morning. O, David and
Phoebe McKellar are the stars of Auckland Theater Companies new
production of Romeo and Juliet. It's fast paced, it is
set in the nineteen sixties in Milan. We're going to
(12:34):
have all the details, including we can get tickets up
on the News Talks EDB website.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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