337

The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member.

The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers (“Sex Education”) as Juliet. 

On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement, saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] seSvxR3ull7LHaEZFIjM@feddit.de 58 points 2 years ago

Romeo and Juliet is the stupidest target for this when all of Shakespeare has been interpreted in wildly diverging ways, skin color would be the smallest of which (and where was it stated that Juliet was white?)

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 50 points 2 years ago

The story says she's from a noble family in North Italy. Most likely she has olive skin tone.

[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 years ago

i hope she's extra virgin tho

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

How did you get down votes for that?

[-] lath@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

You can get down votes for anything. Because they're free.

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Went for the dad joke.

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 years ago

Probably some Northern Italians taking offense at the incorrect generalism about their skin tone?

[-] kromem@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Well that explains why everyone was so up in arms like this over historical skin tone accuracy when Romeo and Juliet were played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. /s

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Yeah, that movie was made before anyone knew what woke meant. In fact, most people still don't know what it means, but that hasn't stopped anybody using it.

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 years ago

Don't even funking try to tell me Mercutio wasn't woke in that version of R&J. He was glorious!

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 years ago

Not that the skin tone matters much but you’ve obviously never been to northern Italy.

[-] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Italy is quite diverse like Spain in terms of skin tone. There are plenty of white skinned and olive skinned Mediterraneans.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

You know that she was portrayed by a non-Italian for the first few hundred years, right?

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Of course. Italy didn't exist yet when the play was written.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Wait, do you think that there were no Italians before the state of Italy was established?

[-] desconectado@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

They were not "Italians" though, they were part of the Venetian republic, which now is part of Italy.

This is like saying Pocahontas was from the US just because she was born where is now the state of Virginia.

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 years ago

They were. The place was called Italia before Romans set foot on British soil.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

More like saying Pocahontas was a Native American. Which in most settings would be an appropriate description.

[-] bostonbananarama@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Wait, do you think that there were Italians before the state of Italy was established?

[-] Aqarius@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Funfact: when Garibaldi's troops reached Sicily, chanting "Viva Garibaldi, viva l'Italia!", many locals assumed Garibaldi's wife is named Talia.

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago

The place has been called Italia since at least 49BC

[-] pendulum_@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

It's been a lot of years since high school English, but Juliet Capulet was of the Italian family Capulet in the 1590s.

There is some detail in the references of the Capulet family to real world factions of the time. But both those arguing for and against this casting don't care about any of that.

[-] LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

yeah... people actually don't care about the canon when they can use social issues and division as marketing

this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
337 points (100.0% liked)

News

36142 readers
3327 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS