An expectant mother, pushing a baby in a perambulator, pauses at a cafe table in a 20th century piazza in Italy, which is furnished with lightweight chairs and tables, awnings, and a red stone-paved surface. She silently orders a coffee and a pastry to go, which are delivered in a white ceramic cup and saucer and a brown paper take-out bag. But as she sits to enjoy her beverage, the chaos erupts around her. Here, swords and rapiers are replaced with knives and guns as representatives from the houses of Capulet and Montague exchange insults, blows, and finally gunshots.
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The action was more striking to me in this modern setting than had it been depicted with sword-play. This could be any modern city; it could be Toronto. Vancouver. Moscow. It could be here.
I found the immediacy of the violence alarming as I subconsciously relived, in a brief moment, places where I have seen similar aggressive movements, heard similar threats and shouts, felt similar fears. This was no artistic look at a culture long gone, but a comment on humanity as it is today.
It was powerful.
This production, seen with My Girl and a group of 18 others, home educating families, mostly, was a gift. We were so blessed to have been able to see it, to absorb the action, the drama, the atmosphere. People in our group drove as much as almost 3 hours one way in order to participate in the experience! Grandmothers came with grandchildren, friends from 'regular school' took an afternoon away from the halls and classrooms to join us in the dark theatre. The living ideas that flowed through the centuries from Shakespeare, through the players, to us as hearers, are innumerable. Now, this is education!
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