 John Gielgud 's New Theatre production in 1935 featured Gielgud and Laurence Olivier as Romeo and Mercutio , exchanging roles six weeks into the run , with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet . Gielgud used a scholarly combination of Q1 and Q2 texts , and organised the set and costumes to match as closely as possible to the Elizabethan period . His efforts were a huge success at the box office , and set the stage for increased historical realism in later productions . Olivier later compared his performance and Gielgud 's : " John , all spiritual , all spirituality , all beauty , all abstract things ; and myself as all earth , blood , humanity ... I 've always felt that John missed the lower half and that made me go for the other ... But whatever it was , when I was playing Romeo I was carrying a torch , I was trying to sell realism in Shakespeare . " 
