Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet (Free Shakespeare in the Park)

June 15, 2026

Associate artistic director/resident director Saheem Ali of The Public Theater believes in updating Shakespeare in ways that modern audiences can identify with. His latest production of "Romeo and Juliet" which now graces the stage of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park has taken a big risk in putting a good deal of the play into Spanish (in translations by Alfredo Michel Modenessi) but as his version takes place on the US southwestern border with a wall designed by Maruti Evans that looks much like the real one on our border, this makes perfect sense. With faces covered by bandanas, the Montagues put up signs that say “Abolish ICE” and “Defund the Wall” while the Capulets appear to be a vigilante force dressed entirely in black. One wishes the production were either more or less political. Since so many of the lines in "Romeo and Juliet" are iconic by now (most middle school students having read the play) there is little problem in following the text even if one doesn’t know Spanish. [more]

Romeo and Juliet (NAATCO/Two River Theater)

May 20, 2023

And the production is loaded with action. Except for the tender love scenes, the play moves at almost breakneck speed. Where most modern productions of Shakespeare tend toward languor, this "Romeo & Juliet," skillfully directed by the playwright and her co-director Dustin Wills, fills the moments that traditionally let the mind wander. A couple of back-to-back scenes that inform the audience, but with virtually the same content, are now played simultaneously. This makes the audience work more industriously to listen and separate out the conversations and Hansol Jung’s contemporary take on Shakespeare’s text make it that much easier to accomplish. [more]

Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet

September 30, 2018

Previous experiments from this adventurous theater group helmed by artistic director Eric Tucker include two versions of Twelfth Night performed in repertory, Hamlet and Saint Joan performed with casts of only four actors, and an updated Pygmalion which was double cast in its smaller roles. In "Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet," Tucker has tried something new: a mashup of both Anton Chekhov’s "Uncle Vanya" and Williams Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet," with scenes from the two alternating. The result is not confusing, but irritating and irrelevant, with neither play gaining from the combination. The advertisement for this show reads “5 actors, 2 plays, 1 performance,” but to what point? [more]

The Stratford and Shaw Festivals 2017

September 15, 2017

Apart from two years ago, when personal developments required me to cancel my scheduled trip at the last minute, the present summer marked my 18th consecutive year at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake and my 12th at the Stratford Festival--both in Canada. (Stratford is about a 90-minute drive from the Toronto airport, and Niagara-on-the-Lake is an hour or so from Buffalo.) What any theatergoer who’s never been to either Festival doesn’t know is that each is the best-kept theatergoing secret in North America. That’s because they are true repertory theaters, and there’s nothing to compare with seeing the same actor in one play in the afternoon and then in a very different production in the evening. And for the most part, every actor in each company is doing just that: there are matinees and evening performances every day of the week, except for Monday, when both Festivals are dark. (Each Festival also has four different theaters.) [more]