Romeo and Juliet Reimagined
(Posted April 28, 2017)
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Dear Juliet is an original take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, written by Patrick Rutledge, a senior from Du Bois, Pa., and Julia Laplante, a senior from State College, Pa. This play was the culmination of two years of work and was presented as their senior capstone. The plot does away with the death potion, and the traditional love story plot. Romeo still falls in love, but instead it’s with Mercutio, and the love is not returned. Mercutio is played by Samekh McKiever, a junior from Petersburg, Va.
The play centers around Juliet, who is a prisoner to a rich man, Paris, played by Elijah Hall, a senior from Pendleton, Ind., who claims to love her, and the letter correspondence between herself and Romeo over the garden wall. Mercutio and Romeo seem to be going on endless adventures and that culminates in them saving and rescuing Juliet.
The play combines the theatrics of acting with the elegance of trapeze. The soundtrack and the lighting went perfectly with the themes of the play as it progressed. This new spin on the play highlights the issues or racism, bigotry, love and acceptance. With Mercutio being a black, gender-nonconforming character, Romeo being gay and Juliet suffering under an abusive situation, the play touches on a lot of issues.
Opening night was performed in front of a sold-out audience, and had another showing on April 13. The performance was done in the black box theatre, creating an intimate space for the audience.
Laplante and Rutledge, “started out trying to highlight the sexism in Shakespeare's original work, specifically the way other characters treat and speak about women. As we worked through the piece's iterations, we realized we needed a more visual metaphor.”
“So we decided to chain me to the stage and leave me there,” said Laplante. “Making the entrapment ever-present snapped the rest of the show into focus. The world became surreal, especially Romeo's responses to Juliet's situation. We ran with that, dialed everything up to 11, and cut away romantic fluff which was obscuring rather than elevating.
“Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was never a love story anyway,” she added. “It's a hate story, a passion story, an escape story, a stupidity story... Mostly, it's a story about kids in an impossible world, trying to be okay. That's the one we wanted to tell.”
Isabella Bennett ’20, Juniata Online Journalist
Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.