Bag & Baggage Real.Provocative. Theatre.

Shakespeare's R&J

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Runs: 02/29/12 — 03/18/12
Opening Night: 03/02/12
Event Time: 7:30pm (2:00pm Sunday matinees)
Tickets: $25 (adults), $19 (seniors & students), $12 (previews)

Bag&Baggage is known for producing text-based Shakespeare with a twist, so Joe Calarco’s visceral adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet fits the Bag&Baggage canon perfectly.

"Four students living in the repressed regime of a Catholic boarding school engage in a clandestine reading of a copy of Romeo and Juliet which is hidden under the floorboards of their dormitory. The play’s status as a forbidden text ironically confirms its power to stir the emotions and to ignite passion. As the students read the play, they gradually take on the roles within it and begin to act the play out using only a few heavy wooden chairs, a wooden chest and a long bolt of red fabric.

As the play progresses, the emotions of their roles begin to take over and they begin to explore their own raw feelings and burgeoning sexuality. Thus, the play within a play offers not only the unfolding of the Shakespeare original, but also the effects of the play, moment by moment, on the emotional development of its actors." Neil Ludwick, London, September 22, 2003

Note: The content of this performance makes it appropriate for audiences ages 15 years and older.