Canadian comedy duo Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster produced a series of television adaptations of Shakespeare. Various forms of the Wayne & Shuster show were staples on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC’s) Saturday evening television programming from the 1950s through to the late 1980s, and they have been occasionally rebroadcast as specials since the 1990s on both CBC and The Comedy Network. Read More
Kırık Kalpler Bankası (The Bank of Broken Hearts) is a film directed by Onur Ünlü in 2016. Ünlü, also the scriptwriter of the film, adapts Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by shifting the family feud to enmity between two local football teams in İstanbul. The rivalry between Yeşil Takım (Green Team) and Mor Kulüp (Purple Club) emanates from a personal grudge between Yusuf Yağmur (Haluk Bilginer) and Rüstem Tor (Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan), both of whom are acting like football coaches of these teams. Read More
Romeo and Juliet in Saigon was directed by Khai Thu Nguyen and Cliff Moustache and performed on July 15, 2012. A 50-minute adaptation of Shakespeare, this work is a result of an intensive workshop at the Hat Boi Theater in Ho Chi Minh City. The play uses dance, movement and Hat Boi techniques to tell about the importance of love and the choice one takes about love. Romeo and Juliet want to find the truth of their heart, but have difficulty because those around them are embroiled in conflict. They risk their life for true love. Read More
In this hilarious retelling of Shakespeare’s life and writing process, the Turkish Cypriot comedians Mehmet Ekin Vaiz and Gülşen Erçin imagine William Shakespeare as a matrilocal who moves to Cyprus. Vaiz’s Shakespeare has an unhappy life as a dairyman and catalyses his frustration with his dominant wife and his daily chores of cleaning cow dungs by revising his plays that apparently had first happy endings into tragic stories. Further motivated by his excessive drinking of the local alcoholic drink zivania, this parodic retelling of the Cypriot William Shakespeare ends with a promotion of Othello, the local zivania trademark. Read More
Building upon Jacques’ theatrum mundi trope, 7 Şekspir Müzikali visualises the seven ages of man from cradle to grave. Being a collection of several excerpts from different translators, including those made by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) alum Haluk Bilginer (1954-…) himself, the musical is built upon Bilginer’s almost one person performance where the rest of the cast as female fools accompany his dancing and singing through a well-choreographed pace. Performing all seven stages of man singlehandedly by referring to social and theatrical issues alike, Bilginer displays his great acting and life-long love relationship with Shakespeare in this almost two-hour musical. Read More
Murat ile Nazlı (Murat and Nazlı) is a film directed by Memduh Ün in 1972. Domesticising the play’s setting to the Turkish countryside, the film depicts how a blood feud separates two lovers, performed by Cüneyt Arkın and Fatma Girik, for many years only to re-unite them in their old age. Read More
Hayat Bayram Olsa (If Life were a Holiday) is a film directed by Orhan Aksoy in 1973. It is a loose and domesticised adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Set in a small town in the seaside where again feuding families try to prevent a happy ending for the lovers, now performed by Kadir İnanır and Hülya Koçyiğit. Read More
Full video is available courtesy of Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). Please note that Televisión Española (TVE) was renamed RTVE from 1980.
https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/estudio-1/estudio-1-romeo-julieta/3196610/
Adapter or translator: José Antonio Páramo, based on a text by Antonio Valencia
TV program (or series): “Estudio 1”
Aired on October 6, 1972.
Starring Ana Belén (Julieta), Tony Ibsert (Romeo), Agustín González, Carlos Lemos, Laly Soldevilla, Javier Loyola, Angela Capilla, José Guardiola, Rafael Guerrero, Mario Alex, Jose Carlos Plaza, Víctor Valverde (Teobaldo).
Production is curated by Jesús Tronch, professor titular (Senior Lecturer) at the University of Valencia, where he teaches English literature and creative translation.
On the eve of a dark peace, when the shades of sun are too sad to show themselves,a love bushed out of a long-standing hatred. Such a marvelous and sudden love for someone you abhor…In the beautiful city of Verona, the hearts stain with the blood of other hearts.Two unlucky children, Romeo and Juliet, become lovers and the story beginson the edge of pain, exile and death… Read More
Based on the classical love story from William Shakespeare, the actors tell the story of this ill-fated romance, mixing it with a cheesecake that takes the name of the protagonists. The blood of the lovers is guava jam, the sword fights are conducted with spatulas and a bite of a Rich Tea biscuit can be a delicious alternative to a broken heart. After the success of Hamlet sou eu and Granda Pinta, Teatro Praga are returning to Teatro Maria Matos with a surprising interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic play. Read More
The worldwide and so many times staged text of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is performed by a young theatre troupe. Alone on stage, without adults, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Benvolio and the rest of friends that – we suppose – should be on stage, in fact are seen here as an urban tribe, will invade the setting in the same way as if they were in fair Verona. A setting where bodies are both set designs and objects, complements for the body, in the sequence of events for the actor. So we shall see the characters, celebrating their bodies and tender age, in a plaza, dancing, singing, fighting and “playing” to stage Romeo and Juliet, playing that they are going a bit crazy with their tasks. In this manner, clothed with the text and white robes, these young people will go Crazy for Romeo and Juliet (Locos X Romeo y Julieta). Read More
Romeo y Julieta, a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, produced by OFF Teatre and directed by José Zamit was performed on July 3, 2012 at the Teatro Olympia in Valencia, Spain. OFF Teatre, an alternative fringe drama school and theatre company founded by Rafael Cruz Izquierdo (Figueres, 1967 – Valencia, 2008) in 2003, has become the benchmark for the independent performing arts in the Valencian Community (Spain). This counter-cultural space, as originally conceived by Cruz, was created in response to those fundamental and collaborative ideas enacted by most European states during the consolidation of the EU at the beginning of the XXI century. Read More
This production of Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare For All (Romeu e Julieta – Shakespeare para todos) was performed at the Federal University of Santa Catarina Theater (Teatro da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil on November, 28th, 2015 by the Elefants Theatre Company (Elefants Companhia de Teatro). Read More
Sintang Dalisay was staged by Tanghalang Ateneo and the Ateneo Fine Arts in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia November 1-4, 2017, and directed and adapted by Ricardo Abad (with Guelan Luarca). Read More
8 päivää ensi-iltaan (Eight days to the premiere) is a Finnish film inspired by Romeo and Juliet. Read More
Grupo Galpão’s Romeu e Julieta is an intercultural adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a production that intentionally draws on a range of popular practices such as street theatre, circus performance and the tradition of the commedia dell’arte, as well as on elements from the cultural imaginary of Minas Gerais in southeast Brazil. This production was staged in 2000 at the Globe Theatre in London. Read More
Grupo Galpão’s Romeu e Julieta (1992), directed by Gabriel Villela, is an intercultural adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a production that intentionally draws on a range of popular practices such as street theatre, circus performance and the tradition of the commedia dell’arte, as well as on elements from the cultural imaginary of Minas Gerais in southeast Brazil. Read More
ROMEO AND JULIET | Vera Komissarzhevskaya Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia | National Theatre Bitola, Macedonia | Director Dejan Projkovski Read More
In the same vein as Dead Poet’s Society, the story is set in the repressed atmosphere of an all male boarding school where four students engage in a clandestine reading of Romeo and Juliet. As the boys express their repressed emotions and passions through Shakespeare’s verse, they start to merge with the roles of the characters in Romeo and Juliet, and the tale blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. Read More
Nós do Morro – Romeu e Julieta: Ontem Verona, Hoje Vidigal (2009) (Yesterday Verona, Today Vidigal).
This is an amateur children’s production of Romeo and Juliet. The group of children from the community/ favela prepare for the mounting of the play, they perform it and, then, they briefly comment on the sense of identity that theater brings to the community.
Article written by Cristiane Busato Smith, “Nós do Morro: Voice, Art, and Empowerment”
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 American romantic crime tragedy film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann, co-produced by Gabriella Martinelli, and co-written by Craig Pearce. It is an adaptation and modernization of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles of two teenagers who fall in love, despite their being members of feuding families. Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora also star in supporting roles. Read More
Romeo and Juliet is Oh Tae-suk’s first adaptation of Shakespeare. His choice was deliberate: Two lovers caught in between warring families in a divided community — a pretty good analogue for the Korean situation. Oh’s adaptation is designed as an apology to Korea’s youth from the older generations for their failure to resolve their country’s troubles. Read More
The Love-Story of Romeo and Juliet (1998-99), directed by Elza de Andrade, is a stage production of a Brazilian textual variation of the story of the star-crossed lovers. Read More
In the Spring of 2008, visiting director Chen Lincang of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing worked with students at the Binghamton University Theatre Department to stage a production of Romeo and Juliet. The result was a new interpretation of the play performed in English, but in the beijing opera style. Read More
Romeo and Juliet was staged on February 19, 2009 by the Tainaner Ensemble in Taiwan and directed by Lü Po-shen. Read More
This 2008 production of Romeo and Juliet was set in 1940s/50s Italy, and costumes were inspired by The Sopranos and The Godfather. Director Neil Bartlett also made the decision to have Juliet deliver her lines in the balcony scene from a cast-iron bed frame.
Cast
Anneika Rose … Juliet
David Dawson … Romeo
Credits
Director … Neil Bartlett
Designer … Kandis Cook
Additional resources can be found for this production here.
Article “Sweet Sorrow” by Neil Bartlett which addresses why Romeo and Juliet remains popular and is a good introduction into the subject of Shakespeare.
For more information about past productions of Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Shakespeare Company, see the RSC Archive.
Shakespeare Wallah is a 1965 Merchant Ivory Productions film. The story and screenplay are by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amidst a dwindling demand for their work and the rise of Bollywood. Madhur Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival for her performance. The music was composed by Satyajit Ray. Read More
Set in Auckland, New Zealand, Broken English is a film inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and directed by Gregor Nicolas.
Many years ago, Ivan (Rade Serbedzija) fled his native Bosnia, which had broken out in war, for New Zealand. Although he has adjusted to his new home, where he works as a drug runner, he’s distrustful of his Maori neighbors. In part to anger him, Nina (Aleksandra Vujcic), one of his daughters, enters into a green-card marriage with a Chinese immigrant (Yang Li) while also dating Eddie (Julian Arahanga), a Maori cook. Ivan’s rage soon poses a threat to Nina and Eddie’s happiness.
Cast
Aleksandra Vujčić as Nina
Julian Arahanga as Eddie
Rade Šerbedžija as Ivan
Marton Csokas as Darko
Madeline McNamara as Mira
Jing Zhao as Clara
Li Yang as Wu
Elizabeth Mavric as Vanya
Temuera Morrison as Manu
For more information, visit IMDb and Wikipedia.
Sholay is a 1975 Indian action-adventure film written by Salim–Javed, directed by Ramesh Sippy, and produced by his father G. P. Sippy. The film is about two criminals, Veeru and Jai (played by Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan respectively), hired by a retired police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) to capture the ruthless dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri also star, as Veeru and Jai’s love interests, Basanti and Radha, respectively. Sholay is considered a classic and one of the best Indian films. It was ranked first in the British Film Institute’s 2002 poll of “Top 10 Indian Films” of all time. In 2005, the judges of the 50th Filmfare Awards named it the Best Film of 50 Years. Read More
Romeo Must Die is a 2000 film about a gang war that breaks out between an African American gang and an Asian gang in Oakland, CA. The plot is similar to that of Romeo and Juliet and featured famed martial arts star Jet Li and singer Aaliyah in her first movie debut. Read More
When Pal’s son kills a police constable, his best friend, Saxena, the only witness to this murder, comes forward and as a result Pal’s son is arrested and charged with murder. Pal pleads with Saxena to change his witness statement, but Saxena refuses to do so, and as a result Pal’s son gets convicted and is sentenced to death. Pal swears to avenge his son’s death. Years later, Saxena’s sons, Ramesh and Suresh, have grown up. While Suresh, the younger son, is serious, studious, and business-minded, Ramesh is quite the opposite. Pal’s son, Prem, befriends Suresh and gets him hooked-up with a gorgeous looking girl, and drugs his drinks, thus making him an addict. He falls in love with this girl and wants to get married to her. His parents and Ramesh are opposed to this, and Ramesh goes to the extent of threatening to kill her. Shortly thereafter, the girl is killed, and a drug-induced Suresh immediately believes that Ramesh is the killer. He abducts Ramesh’s to-be bride, Sheetal Batra, and takes her with him to his hideout. Now the climax is set between the two brothers – with Pal and Prem watching delightedly – as they know only one will survive, and the other will be arrested by the police, and get the death sentence, thus leaving the Saxena family childless and without any heir.
Reshma Aur Shera (Hindi: रेशमा और शेरा; translation: Reshma and Shera) is a 1971 Hindi crime drama film produced and directed by Sunil Dutt and starring Waheeda Rehman as Reshma and Sunil Dutt as Shera. It also stars Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Raakhee and Amrish Puri in supporting roles. Sunil Dutt’s son Sanjay Dutt, who was 12 years at the time, appears briefly as a Qawwali singer in his first film appearance. Read More
Mississippi Masala is a 1991 film inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet about the interracial romance between an African American man and an Indian American woman in rural Mississippi. Read More
Tromeo and Juliet is a 1997 American independent transgressive romantic black comedy film and a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet from Troma Entertainment. The film was directed by Lloyd Kaufman from a screenplay by Kaufman and James Gunn, who also served as associate director. Read More
In One Husband Too Many, Anthony Chan plays a b-grade stage actor whose wife has just left him. His brother (Kenny Bee) is a successful advertising man, whose wife has left him as well. Chan moves back in with Kenny, and they bemoan their lack of woman-holding skill. In an odd turn of events, they become entangled with the same woman (Cherie Chung). When Kenny seems to be winning the fight, Anthony uses dirty tactics. Read More
Romeo and Juliet ’99 was staged in 1999 by the Takarazuka Revue Flower Troupe with performances at the Takarazuka Bow Hall, 6/19 – 7/4. The show was directed by Ueda Keiko. Read More
Flower from the Other Shore is a production of Romeo and Juliet performed by the Holo Taiwanese Opera Troupe in 2001.
University of Laughs (Warai no Daigaku) is a story by Japanese dramatist Kōki Mitani which began as a play in 1996 starring actors Masahiko Nishimura as the Censor and Yoshimasa Kondo as the Playwright. The play won the Best Play Award at the 1996 Yomiuri Theater Awards. Read More
Josh was a 2000 film directed and co-written by Mansoor Khan and inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The movie takes place in 1980 and is set in Goa, India. The story is centered around two rival gangs. The younger brother of one gang leader falls in love with the twin sister of the other gang leader. Read More
Chicken Rice War (Jiyuan qiaohe, dir. Chee Kong Cheah [CheeK], Mediacorp Raintree Pictures, 2000).
Supported by the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) and shot as a mockumentary with MTV-style rapid cuts and whooshing camerawork, the comedy film is Mediacorp Raintree Picture’s first movie primarily in English and the first feature-length work by CheeK, editorial director of MTV Asia (headquartered in Singapore). It frames and trivializes the feud in Romeo and Juliet by reducing the generations-old dispute between the aristocratic Montague and Capulet families, leading to bloodshed, to the rivalry between the Wong and Chan families, who own competing chicken rice stalls next to each other in a hawker center (semi-open-air food court) in the prosperous city-state.
Read MorePart of the Shashibiya Mingju Donghua (Animated Shakespeare) series.
Please visit Oh Tae-suk’s and Mokwha Repertory Company’s 2006 Romeo and Juliet production to watch the full video and read details about Oh’s approach to adapting William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet.
Interviews
