Romeo and Juliet (1954 film) by a novelist. Critics responded to the film as a piece of cinema (its visuals were especially admired in Italy, where it was filmed) but not as a performance of Shakespeare's play: Robert Hatch in "The Nation" said "We had come to see a play... perhaps we should not complain that we were shown a sumptuous travelogue", and "Time"′s reviewer added that "Castellani's "Romeo and Juliet" is a fine film poem... Unfortunately it is not Shakespeare's poem!" Commercially response to the film was underwhelming. One journalist described it as the "unchallenged flop of the year". Romeo and Juliet (1954 film)
Romeo and Juliet Betterton Mercutio, and Betterton's wife Mary Saunderson Juliet: she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally. Another version closely followed Davenant's adaptation and was also regularly performed by the Duke's Company. This was a tragicomedy by James Howard, in which the two lovers survive. Thomas Otway's "The History and Fall of Caius Marius", one of the more extreme of the Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare, debuted in 1680. The scene is shifted from Renaissance Verona to ancient Rome; Romeo is Marius, Juliet is Lavinia, the feud is between patricians and plebeians; Juliet/Lavinia wakes from her potion before Romeo/Marius