Review: To Be Romeo & Juliet

To Be Romeo and Juliet
A film by Robert Schlaht
Canadian Film Festival

For anyone who was disappointed with the less-than-revealing Sydney Theatre Company documentary In the Company of Actors which premiered this year, you will be pleased to know that there is a new film out there that sets the standard for arts documentaries.

To Be Romeo & Juliet, a new movie from film-maker Robin Schlaht is showing tomorrow afternoon as part of the Canadian Film Festival at Chauvel Cinema, Paddington.

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of the doco a couple of weeks ago, and to my great surprise, I discovered a film that is raw, revealing and revelatory.

Without the promotional-like gloss of In the Company of Actors this documentary digs deep into the process of creating theatre by travelling with three sets of companies all staging productions of Romeo & Juliet.

One group is an amateur group based in England led by a director that tends to be all talk and no action. He becomes uncomfortable as the young actors playing Romeo and Juliet clearly need help in adding lust and passion to their roles. Indeed at one stage he suggests they go off to practice on their own.

The footage then switches to the young actresses bedroom, where the two young performers are left to their own devices as they try and become accustomed to the physical intimacy that they think that they need. Adolescent hormones, naivety and total lack of directorial leadership twist and turn their emotions as they become lost in the rehearsal process.

Meanwhile, the documentary skates across to Canada where a youth theatre production of R&J is under way. With teenagers on a holiday camp, they only have a few weeks to get the show up. The patience of the director to get the best out of his young charges who face the simple frustration of learning lines and working out how to play the characters while still remaining cool, is a testament to his professionalism.

Heading further afield, the film then looks at a professional production from the National Theatre of Chile. The scene opens up as the large ensemble ignore their scripts and hurl themselves at each other to create that sense of ensemble. Physical boundaries are immediately broken down as they push boundaries of theatricality to get to the heart of the director’s vision.

The delight of this film is that it not only documents the working process of each of the productions, but also throws in for good measure, the highs and lows of mistakes, ego’s and lost causes. The intimacy of the footage that Schlaht gets is phenomenal as the subjects of the documentary become accustomed to his constant presence.

It is the type of documentary that will make those familiar with the industry take another look at the cross section of process through the three levels. For those that are unaccustomed with the rehearsal process behind theatre is nothing short of revelatory.

If you have tomorrow afternoon free, I recommend you head to Paddington and catch this most worthwhile film.


The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Robin Schlaht and drinks for the opening his new photography exhibition in the Chauvel mezzanine.

1st of December 2007, 2:00 pm - Chauvel Cinema