by Molly Arkin

The concept of the Tedious Brief production of Romeo & Juliet is to really keep Shakespeare's language intact, but set the play in the year 2000. Sure, we had to work around certain things like how people fight in the year 2000. So, we decided to make all the fighting fencing matches.

Now as everybody knows, school violence is an issue that is very important in our society today, and we wanted to address that. Instead of just having it be fueding families, we decided to make the Capulets and the Montagues rival private schools. In each school fencing is a very big sport, so that is how the fencing matches came to be.

Another way to add a modern flare to Shakespeare's words was to make it a musical. Many lines in the play have been turned into songs written by our director Jesse Howard, and modern dance has been cheoreographed to the songs.

Our set, too, communicates the division between the two schools -- a chain link fence splits the stage down the middle. Juliet's bedroom and balcony overhang both sides.

 

Synopsis

by Barbara Stewart

Prince, a policeman of Verona, NY, breaks up a fight between the rival Montague and Capulet high schools and threatens them with death if they fight again. After the brawl, a brooding Romeo enters and tells his friend Benvolio about his unrequited love for the fair Rosaline. Benvolio persuades Romeo to go, as uninvited masked guests, to a Capulet party that night. Rosaline&emdash;and other beautiful women&emdash;will be there. Meanwhile, Paris tells Capulet he'd like to marry Juliet, and Capulet invites him to the party.

At the party, Romeo sees Juliet and is struck by her beauty. He approaches her, and they quickly fall in love. Not until they part do they learn they are from rival schools.

Instead of leaving after the party, Romeo hides nearby and overhears Juliet express her love for him. He answers her, and they decide to marry the next day. Romeo hurries to Friar Laurence, who hesitates but marries them&emdash;hoping their union will bring peace between the Capulets and Montagues.

Tybalt, a Capulet who had recognized Romeo at the party, meets Romeo on the street and insults him to try to get him to fight. Romeo refuses, but Mercutio insists on dueling and is fatally wounded. Romeo kills Tybalt to avenge Mercutio's death and then flees. Prince pronounces that Romeo will be banished rather than punished by death.

Romeo, taking refuge in Friar Laurence's sanctuary, says he prefers death to banishment from Juliet and he attempts suicide. But the Friar stops him, insisting it could be worse. He tells Romeo to go that night to Juliet and leave for exile in Mantua the next morning until it is safe to return.

Just after Romeo leaves Juliet at the break of dawn, she learns that her father has promised Paris he can marry her in 3 days! When Juliet refuses, her father threatens to disown her. Desperate, she goes to seek Friar Laurence's help. The Friar gives her a potion that will make her appear to be dead the morning of the wedding and assures her that Romeo will be there to take her away when she awakens in the burial vault. Juliet returns home and pretends to submit to her father's wishes. He is delighted and decides to have the wedding the very next day.

That night Juliet drinks the potion, and the next morning everyone thinks she is dead. A funeral ensues instead of a wedding.

Meanwhile, Friar Laurence has sent a letter to Romeo explaining Juliet's apparent death. But the letter doesn't reach him, so Romeo knows nothing about it and is devastated when Balthasar brings him news of Juliet's death. He buys a poison and sets off to join Juliet at the tomb, where he takes the poison and dies kissing her. Juliet awakens to find Romeo lying dead, and she kills herself with Romeo's dagger.

When Friar Laurence learns that Romeo never got his letter, he anxiously goes to the tomb. There he finds the two dead bodies, and he's left to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet to Capulet and Montague. Faced with their children's dead bodies, the two agree to end the feud.