My overall impression
What struck me most about this show was how the gender reversal helped the play’s ability to be understood. While this is a play whose story is very well-known, many of the nuances in the Shakespearean language are often lost in modern re-tellings. However, in R&J, I found that looking through the gender-reversed perspective helped me to catch and follow these subtleties, and overall made the piece more enjoyable. Something else that stood out to me was how the gender swap brought out more of the defining characteristics of the characters. In seeing Romeo as a female, the flighty and amorous nature of the youth was more pronounced, and equally so was Juliet’s naivety, innocence and powerlessness as a man. The performances of the cast were great, and despite some moments of dramatic hyperbole (it is Shakespeare, afterall), there were many times when I was genuinely moved by the storytelling I was watching on stage.
