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William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, arguably one of the world’s most famous plays, is a tragic story about the love of two people who are forbidden to be together because of their feuding families. The Tasmanian College of the Arts second year production staged a modern day version of Romeo & Juliet. The twist is that the lead characters of Romeo & Juliet are played by two males and two females (split cast) exploring the themes of same sex marriage. Shakespeare originally intended for the show to explore the theme of forbidden love, however putting it into modern day context and exploring the notion of same sex marriage has moral, social and political implications underpinned by the concept of love. The question of whether or not love and marriage is only restricted to man and woman is explored and by having the protagonists being of the same sex the quarrelling of the two households has much more gravity. Romeo and Julian are two young men who find themselves undeniably attracted to one another when they meet at a ball thrown by the Capulet household. The only problem is that they are from two families that have been feuding since before they were born. Confused, but unable to overcome the intense feelings that they have for each other, they have to decide whether it is possible to pursue their love without consequences. We also see Juliet and Romea, two girls who are also attracted to each other. Audiences are invited to come alternate nights of the performance in order to witness the full effects of both gender roles in reverse.

Item Type:	Performance Practice
Keywords:	Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
Research Division:	Creative Arts and Writing
Research Group:	Performing arts
Research Field:	Drama, theatre and performance studies
Objective Division:	Culture and Society
Objective Group:	Arts
Objective Field:	The performing arts
UTAS Author:	Lewis, R (Dr Robert Lewis)
ID Code:	121814
Year Published:	2014
Deposited By:	Office of the School of Creative Arts and Media
Deposited On:	2017-10-16
Last Modified:	2017-10-17
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