At risk of stating the obvious: Romeo & Juliet is a really good play. 

It can be easy to oversimplify because it’s oversimplified by our culture. We almost all have a point of contact with this play, and because it’s so mired in our own culture, it’s hard to take at face value. It’s arguably the most well known of the canon. “Take it for what it is rather than what you remember it was.”

I know it can be easy to dismiss Shakespeare’s stories and prioritize the poetry, but this plot is as tight as I’ve seen in his canon. The motivations, timeline, and locations all hold. It’s even missing the usual supernatural elements that so often solve for gaps in Will’s other work (I’m looking at you, Winter’s Tale). 

The most implausible part: two teenagers get so excited about a new discovery that they exercise some poor judgment; and adults around them are so stuck in their ways, and so desperate for their loved ones’ safety and stability, that they do the same. Pretty plausible when you put it that way.

I have spent nearly my entire life loving this play. I loved this play before I loved theatre. I loved this play before I loved Shakespeare. So I entered this process intent on questioning the defaults burdening this canonical classic while still honoring its lauded place in our culture, not to mention its nostalgic place in my heart. Our cast has been the key to walking that line. Their insight, creativity, and compassion for the characters and one another has completed that miracle offered us by any Shakespeare production: breathing new life into an old thing, and finding timeless wisdom for our newer world.

We are left with a story of self-discovery, community care, cyclical trauma, and best intentions. I hope you depart from our “two hours’ traffic” with as overflowing a heart as we have had through its crafting.

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- Sarah Corbyn Woolf