Shakespeare's R&J

Synopsis

Set in the 1950's at an exclusive boarding school, four pupils run into the chapel late one night in a bid to escape from their repressive school routines. One of them brings a copy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and they start acting pieces out. Perceptions and understandings are turned upside down as the fun of play acting turns serious and the words and meanings begin to hit home and universal truths emerge. Told entirely through Shakespeare's language, it is both the story of Romeo and Juliet but more importantly the journey of four lads who during the course of one thrilling evening discover the power of theatre and the new worlds it can open up.

Our Review:

9 September 2003

The single-sex Shakespeares keep on coming. Hot on the heels of Propeller's Dream and multiple summer of 'regime change' outings at the Globe comes this American version of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, Romeo and Juliet. It's getting so that I can scarcely remember what it's like to have a mixed cast.

Joe Calarco's rendering of Shakespeare's R&J does have some method behind the casting. By setting the world's most famous romance in a repressive boys' boarding school, Calarco draws parallels between the authority the school represents and the parental authority that Juliet must bow towards. But he goes further. Here, illicit love arises not from the enmity between two warring factions but between two schoolboys coming to terms with their sexuality.

Four uniformed pupils - Matthew Sincell, Jason Michael Spelbring, Jeremy Beck and Jason Dubin - find a c...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (212.137.57.25) - 6 November 2003:

Dreadful. Worst thing I've seen this year. A lot of stamping, shouting and whining with no subtlety in the one note performances at all....

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