Romeo and Juliet

Ballet: Romeo and Juliet
2 February 2001

Home of buskers, and of artists (mime)
Dance, music and petty crime
Dippers bump punters and say 'pardon'
Outside the Opera House in Covent Garden

Eight pound tickets, though up in the Gods
A good view; at a distance plods
Heavy-footed Johan Persson (Mercutio)
Who lives it large with le Riche (Romeo)

They swagger, macho, until both are slain
In turn by sword (Tybalt) and love (Juliet; Sylvia Guillem)
But set and light and stage design
And technique en point is all very fine;
answer me these (in rhyme)

Unanswered questions: one
Where does Romeo get his poison from?
Two: why ask advice of a cloistered priest
On matters of the heart, which he knows least

Three: Paris shook on it with her Pa
But with Juliet he doesn't get far
Shouldn't she tell him she's already wed
Romeo, and shared his marriage bed?

Even persistent Paris would resist bigamy
Instead, thwarted, he catalyses tragedy
At the end all die dancing; poisoned or stabbed
It's the priest who should be kebabbed