The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member.
The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers (“Sex Education”) as Juliet.
On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement, saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”
I’m not talking about whether you should or shouldn’t, just noticing that every single other time there’s a situation like this, the victim IS named. This is definitely a pretty unique circumstance.
But the point stands–if indeed their aim was to keep attention off the abused, why even put out a public statement about it at all, given the fact that this cast has a headlining member that is very conspicuously of a different race than what the average schmoe would expect? Isn’t that antithetical to that goal, then?
‘We don’t want to bring any negative attention to this victim of racial abuse by naming them–this victim of racial abuse in this run of Romeo & Juliet where Juliet is played by a black woman.’
I mean, come on, lol.
Usage of language is important. As has been mentioned, it doesn’t repeatedly mention her name as it isn’t necessary.