When the Iowa State University production of William Shakespeare's "Romeo
and Juliet" opens in late February, it won't be the traditional production
most of us are familiar with.
"Shakespeare's plays are beautifully universal," says Robin
Stone, assistant professor of music and the play's director. "So
I have attempted to find ways this drama can be a metaphor for our time
and our culture.
"We're not going to do 'Romeo and Juliet' the same way it has been
done the last 400 years."
Instead ISU Theatre's production of "Romeo and Juliet" will
not be set in a particular time or place. According to Stone, the majority
of the rest of the classic Shakespeare will remain, including the oft-quoted
dialogue and the two main families - the Capulets and the Montagues.
In this production, one family will be Christian and another Muslim. A
civil war has broken out between the two families. Religion however isn't
the focus of this version of "Romeo and Juliet."
"It's not important why they hate each other. It doesn't matter
why," Stone says. "In fact, they don't know why they are killing
each other - other than their ancestors did.
"Shakespeare's tragedy explores the conflict of natural emotion
in the face of illogical, human constructs. Throughout human history we
have irrationally killed each other in the name of religion and ethnicity,
devastated each other and our achievements over property, murdered each
other because of long-standing feuds, conquered and destroyed because
of desires for power, and committed other heinous acts for other specious
reasons."
During his research for "Romeo and Juliet," Stone came across
a story of two 25-year-old lovers who try to flee war-torn Sarajevo. One
is Serbian, the other a Muslim. As they near relative safety, they are
killed by machine gun fire and die in each other's arms. For several days,
the bodies lie out in the open as both sides in the conflict assign blame
and stake claims to the corpses.
"That's tragic to me," Stone said. "Hopefully people will
realize that this ('Romeo and Juliet') isn't fiction and won't focus just
on the beauty of love but tragedy and civil strife.
"'Romeo and Juliet' can still challenge people to think about their
society and culture," Stone continued, "and the only way to
do that is to emphasize the play's themes that are relevant today and
look at the lives of Romeo and Juliet from a different perspective."
ISU Theatre's production will open Friday, Feb. 28, in Fisher Theater,
at 7:30 p.m. Other 7:30 p.m. curtain times will be held March 1, 7, and
8, while 2 p.m. matinees are scheduled on Sunday, March 2 and 9.
Tickets are $11 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5.50 for students and
are available at the Iowa State Center Ticket Office, all TicketMaster
locations, or charge-by-phone in Ames at 515-233-1888.
Juliet will be portrayed by Ashley Lorenz, while the role of Romeo will
be played by Kenneth Oishi.
