Shakespeare’s R&J

A Somewhat Unusual Twist, to an old-age Classic.

Pieter Toerien is proud to present to thee, they Abrahamse and Meyer production of thou Shakespeare’s R&J.

Joe Calarco’s award-winning Shakespeare’s R&J re-imagines Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers as two adolescent schoolboys in a Catholic boarding school during the 1950s. Their love for one another becomes the ultimate forbidden love in an austere, repressive all male milieu.

Four pupils discover an illicit copy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and start acting it out in their dormitory late one night. Perceptions and understandings are turned upside down as the fun of play acting turns serious and the words and meanings begin to hit home and universal truths emerge.

Shakespeare’s R&J was first presented by Expanded Arts Inc. New York in September 1997. It then opened at the John Houseman Theatre, New York in March 1998 where it ran for over a year (385 performances) making it the longest running version of Romeo and Juliet in New York.

Calarco subsequently staged the play in Chicago, Washington D.C, Japan and on London’s West End. Other productions have been staged with great success across the United Stated, Europe and Australia. The South African première was presented by Abrahamse & Meyer Productions at the 2011 National Arts Festival, Grahamstown.

The amazing cast consist of Matthew Baldwin, Dean Balie, Jeremy Richard and Tailyn Ramsamy, with Abrahamse as directing.  The Catholic Consultancy was under consultation of brother Michael Burke.

 

Shakespeare’s R&J

Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre

23 August – 8 September

Tickets @ Theatre Box Office (011) 511 1818 and Computicket