Romeo and Hamlet is a play with a very simple concept that pays off brilliantly. It is exactly as it sounds, a mash-up of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, in which our lovestruck, teenaged Montague falls deeply in love not with that drippy Capulet chick but with everyone’s favorite soulfully brooding prince of Denmark, and vice versa. What makes this play, penned by Canadian playwrights, R. Jonathan Chapman and Kevin Stefan, so clever is how the two are able to create a brand-new work of theatre that simultaneously satirizes and queers Shakespearean tragedy, while mostly utilizing Shakespearean dialogue straight (no pun intended) from the Bard’s plays. Naturally, the majority of the script is drawn from the two plays in the title, but lines also appear from numerous others, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, Macbeth, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, and others. One of the play’s primary delights is in spotting all of the different references and seeing how easily the meaning of well-known dialogue can be altered simply by shifting the context ever so slightly.
Chapman and Stefan’s undertaking in cobbling together a coherent play from the pieces of nearly a dozen others is rather immense, but they succeed so smoothly and admirably, they make it seem easy. Meanwhile, the mash-up of the plots themselves works surprisingly and stunningly well. In the world of Romeo and Hamlet, ”Montague” means “gay,” Hamlet’s father was a secret Montague (which was one of the reasons for his murder), and Juliet, after being scorned by Hamlet, who was supposed to marry her, becomes a hybrid of Tybalt and Ophelia. In other words, she has been ignored by her former suitor (the Ophelia part of her), which makes her thirsty for vengeance against the man who stole her man from her (Tybalt). In one of the smartest points in the script, during her major confrontation scene with Hamlet, she speaks the lines originally written for Hamlet, altered to “Get thee to a monastery,” and he reads the lines written for Ophelia. A little later, there is something rather magical and meta about the moment where Romeo and Juliet duel for Hamlet’s love. Romeo and Hamlet even manages to provide us with an even more convincing explanation for why Hamlet stalls so long in killing his uncle–it’s because he’s so besotted with Romeo, it distracts him from his revenge, naturally!
Unfortunately, Romeo and Hamlet is no longer running, having closed last night. It was, however, the opening production of Gayfest NYC 2010, a theatre festival for new gay-themed plays, all proceeds for which benefit New York City’s Harvey Milk High School (NYC’s high school for gay teens), which will be presenting works through June 6th. Directed by Sidney J. Burgoyne, Romeo and Hamlet was truly a beautifully launched production, which perfectly balanced both its comedic and tragic tones so that one could feel for the protagonists even while laughing uproariously at their stories. It also featured strong performances from its cast, most notably Chris Bannow as Romeo, Craig Wesley Divino as Hamlet, Ellen Adair as Juliet, Kate Levy in the dual role of Gertrude and Friar Laurence, and Amy Jackson and Maechi Aharanwa in the gender-shifted roles of Mercutio and Guildenstern, respectively. While it’s too late to see this production of Romeo and Hamlet, I strongly recommend clicking on the above link and checking out some of the current and upcoming plays for Gayfest NYC this year. I can’t attest to the quality of every play, but I can say that the one that I saw was absolutely fabulous, in content and presentation, and your ticket purchase will help benefit a great cause. And if you ever do have the opportunity to see a future production of Romeo and Hamlet, grab it.
Related posts:
- Stage Vamps: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
- “The Mirror Up to Nature”: Hamlet (2009)
- “What’s Hecuba to Him or Him to Hecuba?”: The Pearl Theatre’s Frustrating Hamlet
- Cymbeline at Lincoln Center
- Friday in the Park with Hamlet
