We just watched a 2011 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s, “Romeo & Juliet,” called “Private Romeo.” I have seen so many performances and adaptations of this play. (Honestly, one more post-apocalyptic interpretation of ANY Shakespeare play and I might jump off a bridge.) This one was different. This, in many ways was the best adaptation I have seen. The setting was interpreted as an all male military academy, and so, the love story was between two men. We live in a culture in which marrying someone out of love is so ingrained in our psyche that when people read (or see) the play there is a severe disconnect. I have never seen or heard anyone shed a tear or have an emotional response when they watched it. It is almost always an academic exercise. The idea of forbidden love (or, at least, love that is not approved of) is sort of remote. It has been my experience that it takes awhile to explain why two families would hate each other so much, and then explain the culture of arranged marriages in which love was not part of the game. Here the story made sense without effort. There was no explanation necessary. And, I have never seen actors have such happy facility with the language. The script (much unaltered) is understood simply by their facility with it. Often we hear Shakespeare being performed and hear the same thing. It is that same intonation and pronunciation that comics have an easy time poking fun at and mimicking. With these actors, though, the script becomes dialogue and is easily understood and followed. I, myself, got emotional several times. After all that praise I do have a few grievances. First, some of the actors have dual roles, which could be a bit confusing. They seemed to “merge” characters together. They could have solved that by hiring a few more actors, but I understand the artistic need for simplicity. The only other thing I had issue with was…well..spoilers… So, there we are. Find it. It is well worth your time (You will either love it or hate it. I think there will be very few people who fall in the middle.)
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 03:46:58 +0000