Shakespeare's R&J

No, not Shakespeare's Rum and Juice; it's his Romeo and Juliet as played out by four young men.

The premise of 'Shakespeare's R&J' is that four students in the restrictive atmosphere of a boy's Catholic school act out 'Romeo and Juliet' discovering forbidden love and sex as they do so. I did go to an all boys' school, although not a Catholic one, and so was familiar with some of the school references but not the religious ones.

It's an interesting premise which elicited some occasional schoolboy type humour and more relevently the boys' first exposure to adult love and relationships. I'm not certain that the device helped illuminate Shakespeare's work and some uneven acting did not help. I missed a lot of the text because of the speed of the actors' delivery and the unfavourable acoustics of the auditorium.

The play was nicely choreographed though and I did enjoy watching the coordinated movement of the performers. Kn, a public school old boy, loved the performance and says he was almost moved to tears at the end. Tm, a Marist Brothers old boy, was less enthusiastic and for myself, a non-denominational private school old boy...well...it was OK but not exactly must see.