Shakespeare on Stage

Some English students from the 11th and 10th grades left the school on January the 13th, together with our teachers, on a trip to Aveiro, to watch the play Romeu e Julieta, an adaptation to Portuguese from Shakespeare’s famous drama.

Around 5:00 p.m., when we were about to leave, we were already commenting about what a special night it would be – we couldn’t be more right. After arriving in Aveiro, we went to a shopping centre to have dinner. Having done that, we headed to the “Teatro Aveirense”, the aim of our trip.

Despite the incredible confusion we made when entering the theatre, we managed to get to our places, sit down and be quiet (most of us, anyway). As soon as the play started, the environment changed drastically: we weren’t at a theatre house in Aveiro any more, we were in Verona, Italy, at some time in the Renaissance. This time-travelling was possible because of the actors’ remarkable talent.

Some (such as Diogo Infante, as Mercutio) were famous and known to the general public, some others were not, but all of them contributed with their fantastic performances to make the scenes of dramatic suffering, as well as those of sheer humour, seem extraordinarily real.

Throughout the whole play they made us hold our breaths, they made us laugh and they made us feel moved but, most of all, they showed us that the characters in the play could be people like you and I.
At the end, we rose to our feet in a storming (and deserved) applause and left the theatre and Aveiro, feeling grateful for this special night. What did we learn that night?

Well, everyone knows that Romeo and Juliet is a story about true love, but if you watch it on stage, you’ll realize that it is also a story about true genius – Shakespeare’s true genius – and a true mystery – the human heart.