ROMEO AND JULIET is a play full of contradictions and contrasts. It is a chaotic world of music, drugs and violence. It is a world that doesn’t allow us to separate our own experience of violence from that in the play. The people inhabiting this world are likewise multifaceted. They are loving, but sometimes hateful; wicked, but sometimes decent; innocent, but sometimes deceitful; good-hearted, but sometimes fragile. . . I guess you can sum it up that they are human. The first half of the play is a crazy romantic comedy; even In the middle of this chaos, we see two young people meet and fall in love. The second half leans towards a dark tragedy; the juxtaposition of their love against the backdrop of violence and hate lies at the core of the story and everything unravels from there.
Ultimately, this is the tale of two ill-fated young people who fall in love. Is it possible that their love could change the world around them? The optimist in me believes it is – but at what cost?
“See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” – Prince, ROMEO & JULIET
Maybe, with Shakespeare’s beautiful verse ringing in our ears and resounding in our hearts, we can resolve to do better and not make the same mistakes. While our story has a lot to do with hate – it has more to do with love. Enjoy our story.
SYNOPSIS:
After a brawl between the rival families of Montague and Capulet, the Prince threatens with death anyone who “disturbs our streets again.” Romeo, Montague’s heir, masked at a Capulet dance, becomes infatuated with Capulet’s daughter, Juliet. From the garden he overhears her avowal as she stands on her balcony and their love scene follows. Next afternoon Friar Lawrence marries them in secret.
When Romeo refuses to fight with Tybalt, a passionate Capulet (who is now his cousin by marriage), the gallant Mercutio takes the challenge himself. He is killed by mischance, and Romeo, enraged, kills Tybalt. In his absence the Prince banishes him; the Friar tells him to stay the night with Juliet and then wait in Mantua until recall is possible. When Juliet’s father insists that she shall marry a young nobleman, Paris, and she gets no aid from either her mother or her nurse, the Friar gives her an opiate (to take on the following night) that will put her in a death-like trance for “two-and-forty hours.” She will be laid in the Capulet vault; when she wakes, Romeo will be there.
Juliet is duly placed in the vault as dead, but the Friar’s messenger never makes it to Mantua to warn Romeo. Hearing only of Juliet’s “death”, Romeo hastens to the tomb at night and is surprised by Paris whom he kills; in the vault he drinks poison he has bought from a Mantuan apothecary, and dies by Juliet’s side. She wakes as the desperate Friar enters, and on seeing Romeo dead, stabs herself. The Prince and the heads of the families are roused; over the bodies of their children Capulet and Montague are reconciled.
