We lay our scene at UNCW main stage theater, imitating the fair town of Verona, where two star crossed lovers take their lives between Feb. 13-16 and 20-23. 

“Romeo and Juliet,” written by William Shakespeare and directed by Christopher Marino, tells the story of two houses, alike in dignity, who are sworn enemies despite a young love blossoming out of the family hatred. The tragedy is filled with love, hate, comedy, fighting and death that encapsulates viewers for a two hour stage performance. 

The play starts with a heated debate and biting thumbs between the Capulets and Montagues that turns into a full family brawl on the streets of Verona. A live musical performance was held on stage to add to the ambience and tension as both of the families fought one another, swords clashing and props being thrown on stage. Tybalt (Bela Gonzalez) and Benvolio (Jacob Denise) dueled on stage until the Prince broke up the fighting, all men departed leaving an exchange of conversation between the Montagues and Benvolio about the whereabouts of Romeo. 

Romeo, O’ Romeo…

A moving performance by Andrew Page showed the heartbroken, madly in-love, rowdy and careless side of Romeo for the entirety of his performance. Audience members could feel his melancholy but were drawn in by his romantic side as they ooo-ed and awed over dramatic kisses and his death. Page’s physicality and acting on stage portrayed Romeo to be emotional with his movement—gentle with Juliet but a fighter with his foes—that enamored the audience from beginning to Romeo’s end. 

My Sweet Juliet 

Juliet (Rachel Wilson) is a young rebellious girl who is being forced to marry Paris (Mathew Johnson) due to the orders of her mother, Lady Capulet (Allie Sharpe). Wilson’s performance of Juliet demonstrates the character’s love and passion for Romeo. Wilson allows for Juliet to become soft and angelic when she is around Romeo but emotional and fierce in dire times. Wilson’s emotional-felt performance of Juliet’s monologue about the death of her cousin,Tybalt, could be felt through her voice and actions on stage. Wilson conveyed the emotions of love and hate all within her performance. 

The two star-crossed lover’s performance kept audience members on their seats and wishing for another fate to happen instead of the classic tragedy. Page and Wilson’s portrayal of the young lovers kept to the classic characteristics of Romeo and Juliet with an addition of fast-paced, witty humor. The love, passion and burning desire from Page and Wilson led to the undesired fate that was bestowed upon them. 

[Enter Mercutio, Lady Capulet, Paris and Rosaline]

Other characters in the play were show-stoppers as their own unique characters were brought to life on stage. Cole Warren put on a performance to remember. As Mercutio, Warren’s role was filled with the humor, sexual innuendos, boisterous personality and tragic death that portray his character’s personality to perfection. His character interacted with other characters on stage to show his lightheartedness under the masquerade of a teenage dirtbag persona—spewing long monologues to Romeo and dying for the dignity of the Montague house. 

Allie Sharpe put on a wonderful performance as Lady Capulet, a controlling mother who wanted to arrange a marriage for Juliet. In this adaption of “Romeo and Juliet,” there is no father figure as he has died, making Lady Capulet head of the house. This adaptation allowed for a toxic mother-daughter relationship, compared to the original play being between Juliet’s father, that gave more insight to Lady Capulet’s character through Sharpe’s performance. Sharpe’s performance of Lady Capulet captured her to become more merciful instead of angry. Lady Capulet’s character helped shape the relationship for the good between her and Juliet. Their clashing personalities on stage allowed for the audience to see how Lady Capulet cared for the family social standing while Juliet cared for Romeo’s love.  

Another feature of this adaptation that is not in the original play is the Rosaline’s character (Olivia Knighten). Her performance on stage was to give more sly comments towards Romeo as she was his past love interest. In Shakespeare’s version of “Romeo and Juliet,” Rosaline never makes an appearance but instead gets tossed to the side when Romeo aims to catch Juliet’s eye. 

The Final Act 

This adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” shows the grunge and glamorous life of the two households at all different ages. The adults and parents are dressed in wealthy appearing attire compared to the others who are in more British punk style– yellow shoelaces on Doc Martens, Sex Pistols T-shirts, safety pins and rugged outfits. The attire of their clothing helped set up the musical aspects of the production that was performed throughout the play, allowing for the young pop-punk style to merge with the musical aspects. However, during Lady Capulet’s party, some characters on stage were seen to be wearing the classical Renaissance era attire, allowing for some of the original aspects of Shakespeare’s play to peek through. 

A live music performance with an electric guitar, bass and drums played parallel with the performance to enhance the love, the tension, and the sadness that filled the theater. In addition, two songs were performed by Juliet (Rachel Wilson), Paris (Matthew Johnson) and Mercutio (Cole Warren) at the party. These musical aspects added to the young love but also the theme of teenagers listening to  punk music. 

This adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” by Marino shows the edgy, dark and twisted side of love but also the innocence and vulnerability between all of the characters. All actors in the show put on an excellent performance that united all members of the Capulet and Montague household after the death of the two young lovers. From the stage, to the costumes and the acting, this performance and adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” is one to remember and one to never forget. 

To purchase tickets, please visit Arts at UNCW for the upcoming performance on Feb. 20-23.