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Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Romeo And Juliet Director Fires Back at Those Angry for the West End Casting
The Mary Sue: Racists have made their voices loud and clear over the casting of a new production of Romeo and Juliet on the West End. Those voices are just uninformed takes on a fictional story from Williams Shakespeare that they are using as a racist dogwhistle but they are loud about it.
2 comments:
Carly Tamborello
said...
It is so embarrassing and disheartening that this hateful and racist response to the casting has been so vocal. The fact that these kinds of debates are still ongoing is truly infuriating. Like the article says, it makes no sense to point to historical inaccuracy when (1) there is no history involved in this fictional story, and (2) the best productions of Shakespeare these days are the ones that actively break down barriers and reimagine his worlds in the worlds we know now, which absolutely means more diverse casting. Upsetting responses aside, I am super excited and curious about this cast –– not only are the frontrunners definitely going to be great, but know Freema Agyeman is playing the Nurse, which I’m sure she will be amazing and hilarious in, although I would watch Freema Agyeman do just about anything. I was surprised by the name Tom Holland, but I always forget that he got his start in live theatre in Billy Elliot.
Reading this article made me feel the same way when I was seeing all of the backlash about the news when Halle Bailey was cast for a live action Ariel. I really wonder why these people online have so much time to be so outraged about a thing that is basically meaningless to them and hurts nobody. There is nothing lost by casting Amewudah-Rivers into the role of Juliet, especially because it's just a piece of fiction written by a person who would've cast a man with a wig for it anyway when he was still alive. I find it almost hilarious how mad people online get about the things that just really do not matter to anyone, but they make it their life's goal for two weeks to go die on a hill that just outs them as being a racist. Something like this should have no negative impact whatsoever on anyone's lives, and the fact the Director stood up and fought back is awesome to see but truly shouldn't be necessary. People are just too angry about stupid things and need to get some hobbies that don't include berating people online.
2 comments:
It is so embarrassing and disheartening that this hateful and racist response to the casting has been so vocal. The fact that these kinds of debates are still ongoing is truly infuriating. Like the article says, it makes no sense to point to historical inaccuracy when (1) there is no history involved in this fictional story, and (2) the best productions of Shakespeare these days are the ones that actively break down barriers and reimagine his worlds in the worlds we know now, which absolutely means more diverse casting. Upsetting responses aside, I am super excited and curious about this cast –– not only are the frontrunners definitely going to be great, but know Freema Agyeman is playing the Nurse, which I’m sure she will be amazing and hilarious in, although I would watch Freema Agyeman do just about anything. I was surprised by the name Tom Holland, but I always forget that he got his start in live theatre in Billy Elliot.
Reading this article made me feel the same way when I was seeing all of the backlash about the news when Halle Bailey was cast for a live action Ariel. I really wonder why these people online have so much time to be so outraged about a thing that is basically meaningless to them and hurts nobody. There is nothing lost by casting Amewudah-Rivers into the role of Juliet, especially because it's just a piece of fiction written by a person who would've cast a man with a wig for it anyway when he was still alive. I find it almost hilarious how mad people online get about the things that just really do not matter to anyone, but they make it their life's goal for two weeks to go die on a hill that just outs them as being a racist. Something like this should have no negative impact whatsoever on anyone's lives, and the fact the Director stood up and fought back is awesome to see but truly shouldn't be necessary. People are just too angry about stupid things and need to get some hobbies that don't include berating people online.
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