Romeo and Juliet are Spoiled Brats
And this is not just because I had to edit and re-edit a modern English version of the balcony scene to make it suitable for two girls entering an interpretation contest. By the by, now that I have finally finished it I think it is a darn nice stand alone scene and not half bad if I do so say myself.
Seriously, about the characters though, they never stop talking about how they would die for want of this, die for the sake of that, would rather perish than suffer this be murdered than blah blah and on and on. I ought to do a word cloud for interest’s sake and find out how many times DIE come up. It got to be really really annoying as I’m editing for length but in the end made things easier - Romeo only gets to say he is going to die once per speech and Juliet can only say kill once per speech. Once you make a rule like that it becomes easy to cut off excess.
I remember this play coming up again and again in various drama and English classes since high school, it really is like herpes, you get on with your life and now and again you have this flare up when you have to deal with the play, not that I have personal experience in this regard, I’m inferring from reading Savage Love advice columns.
Anyways, at some point in my time I will direct shortened version of this play (because GAWD I won’t be able to stand this for the whole 5 acts) and Romeo and Juliet will be the most gothed-out emo punk bored middle class teenagers ever. The soundtrack will be all Nirvana and Paranoid Android and there will be enough black eyeliner to sink a ship. .
Of course this is a horrendously un-original interpretation of the text but meh - I want to do it, it would be like scratching an itch.