ROMEO ET JULIETTE

On Tuesday evening I went to the theatre in the company of other family lawyers to see a performance of the opera Romeo et Juliette in French. It was a compelling production, with a monochrome background and costumes broken only by the occasional orange orb and patch of green grass. The whole effect was funereal and the experience was one of being submersed in a completely different “art” experience.

The costumes were contemporary and the well-known storyline portrayed a childish and innocent love, moving from Juliette teasing her nanny to asking the first man to smile in her direction to marry her. Love at first sight. Of course as a group of cynical divorce lawyers, we could only anticipate the work that would flood in if everyone behaved in such an impulsive manner. Or would it? Not if, as in this story, it ended with a bottle of poison and a dagger to the stomach, thus ending the lives of both protagonists. It would take William Shakespeare to pen something better, or Mills & Boon!