An Excellent and Conceited Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
April 4-6 and 11-13, 2019Van Fleet Theatre, Columbus Performing Arts Center
Probing the nature of love, violence and language itself, this intricate coming-of-age tragedy has withstood the test of time as one of Shakespeare’s best-loved and most performed plays.
This production took an experimental approach to this classic story. Our production was set in a society out of time, defined entirely by the all-consuming violence of the feuding houses. We aimed to explore young people’s resistance to deeply held collective beliefs and investigate their role in effecting social change.
The production used an adaptation of the First Quarto version of the text. The First Quarto text is considerably shorter than the “canonical” Second Quarto version, features richly detailed stage directions, and contains interesting textual variations.
Romeo and Juliet gave me the opportunity to be in my very first play by Shakespeare. Going in I thought I knew what Romeo and Juliet was all about and that I’d breeze through it because the story is so well known. I was wrong! I learned to always expect to be surprised and to grow as I go. It was a whole new story living it for myself.
- Jordan Booker