'There is not one Juliet. There never has been'

Dr Sophie Duncan (Dr Sophie Duncan) author of Searching For Juliet, gives us the history of Juliet.

THREAD 🧵

Racist backlash against Francesca Amewudah-Rivers's casting as Juliet has pretended to oppose 'inaccurate' or 'woke' casting, as if Shakespeare's Juliet were a real historical figure or a fixed point in theatrical tradition.

But Amewudah-Rivers's Juliet joins a long tradition of diverse, evolving interpretations of Shakespeare's tragic heroine. There is no one Juliet. There never has been.

Juliet comes from a medieval Sienese legend that re-emerged in Verona and appeared in poetry. The 'balcony' on Casa Giulietta and Juliet's 'tomb' in the city were both remodelled in the 1930s.

When Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in about 1595, his first Juliet was a teenage boy, Robert Gough. Gough would have worn white face make-up, a wig and a corset. His son also became a
'boy player' in women's roles!

After the 1660 Restoration, playwright Thomas Otway reset the play in 80 BC as a Roman political drama: Elizabeth Barry, tragic superstar in her late 20s, played Lavinia.

Nearly 300 years ago, the first Black performer to play Juliet was Rachael Baptiste, an Irishwoman also hugely successful as a singer.
She performed in Lancashire in the mid-1700s.