It amazes me that, of the thirty-odd productions I’ve been a part of and the dozen more I’ve seen, I’m the only director to make use of these lines from Juliet:
O, look! methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
She says she sees the ghost! I cannot fathom why directors ignore this. She straight up says that she sees the ghost!
It seems a wonderful (and obvious) device to have dead Tybalt enter, covered ‘all in blood, all in gore blood’ as the Nurse describes him, and search for Romeo. It is also great motivation for Juliet to drink the Friar’s potion, which until that moment she has been talking herself out of doing. I’ve used this twice, and it’s frightfully creepy.
Yet I’ve only ever seen the ghost in my own productions. So perhaps I am simply insane. But I think this is one of the most powerful points in the show. The creators of West Side Story surely thought so – they staged an entire dream ballet around it.
