‘Two Households’ — Origin of the Feud

Nearly 20 years ago, I was ramping up for my first time directing Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. I had performed in it several times, but this was to be my first outing at the helm, and I was obsessively reading and re-reading the script, watching other productions, even visiting Verona as a lark. Not that Shakespeare ever went there, but for the past hundred years or so the city has become, at least partially, an industry town for the play. Shakespeare’s Italian Disneyland.

Used to looking at a play through the eyes of a single character, this was the first time…