About the Play

In R&J: An Ultramodern Fantasia, Shakespeare’s best-known play gets a makeover for the modern age. In the original text, our titular star-crossed lovers take the family hatred that divides them and defy it with naive love. We, too, are divided — not only in the ideological sense, but in our ability to share physical space with one another. This abridged production of Romeo and Juliet explores these divisions, using audiovisual elements to recreate and revitalize the closeness we have lost. Fair Verona is not forced into the exact conditions in which we find ourselves today. We lay our scene in a dream-like plane, using film, live performance, and a score of original music by Harvard students to imagine a world in which we are intimately connected — no matter the physical or emotional distance between us.