In conversation with Nicholai La Barrie: Questioning what makes us human with ‘Romeo and Juliet’

Romeo and Juliet, as we all know, explores the conflicts and passions that arise when two lovers from rival families cannot subdue their love for one another.

Nicholai La Barrie (God of Carnage, Tina- The Tina Turner Musical) is a theatre and film director and has been a MOBO Fellow.  I had the pleasure of talking to La Barrie as he makes his Royal Exchange Theatre debut with a contemporary rendition of Shakespeare’s classic tale, rewired as a love letter to Manchester.

In his early career, La Barrie performed in Twelfth Night. I asked if he had always been a fan of Shakespeare’s stories, “Always” he replied. La Barrie reminisced about his first introduction to Shakespeare. His English teacher had told the class that their next text – Hamlet, would denote themes of murder, incest, and rape, “we went crazy” he recalled with a warmness in his tone. La Barrie explained that for a class made up of fourteen-year-old boys, the possibility of exploring such loaded themes set everyone abuzz. He added, “up until that point Shakespeare is boring, full of language that doesn’t make any sense.”

For La Barrie, Shakespeare’s stories represent “real” human interaction and emotion. His depiction of human existence is not esoteric, “it feels very accessible,” and unveils the complex struggles that “we have to go through in our everyday life: love, pain, betrayal, and happiness”.

La Barrie has been both the Lyric’s Associate Director and Director of Young People for the Young Lyric which focuses on youth, educational, and inclusive programmes. It was evident at every stage of our conversation just how important the voice of young people is to La Barrie.

As such, La Barrie toured local schools in our Local Exchange across Manchester to inspire his direction for this adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.  La Barrie told us that this research solidified his ideas of where to set the play and assisted his approach towards Shakespearean vocabulary for a youthful audience.

“I am very conscious that young people are going to come and see the show and if it’s the first time you encounter a Shakespeare play, I want it to feel like you know the characters; like they’re a part of you and understand that there is no barrier to entry.”

La Barrie confessed that he’d like to think that a class on the train home after watching this play would do nothing but discuss contending views about the characters’ judgements.  Chewing over “the right of people to take their own lives or questioning whether it was fair of Juliet’s mother to do what she did to her.” These in-depth conversations, he hopes, will allow you to “feel like you own the piece of theatre.”

La Barrie also has an impressive career in film, noting Hamlet Sort Of (2017) and North East South West (2016) in particular. I asked La Barrie if he preferred theatre.  He describes that Theatre is a more collaborative environment, but he enjoys both because of their differences. “I like the ability of stories to tell us something about ourselves without being didactic”, this feeling is available to the viewer of both theatre and film.

La Barrie’s experience of directing theatre has comprised several genres. Including productions like God of Carnage – a black comedy handling topics like racial prejudice and homophobia, to Tina -The Tina Turner Musical. La Barrie could not name his favourite genre, he simply “loves stories and our ability to get lost within them.”

La Barrie suggested that within all the, seemingly disparate, forms of theatre I had pointed to there is “some question about what makes us human.”

“My life as an artist is a quest to discover the truth behind what makes us human and what binds us” revealed La Barrie, “and hopefully at some point, I/we will get an answer.”

La Barrie leaves us with “some guys like cars, motorcycles, video games, I love theatres”, we do too! This immense retelling of Romeo and Juliet runs at the Royal Exchange Theatre from 20 October – 18 November 2023. See you there!