JULIET

Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

British actor, director and playwright Robert Rawles went one step further and used his passion and expertise of the theater and Shakespeare to rewrite Romeo and Juliet in a true modern-day language version called Rikki and Julie to help students better explore the play and its meaning. In typical 2008 language, the play included the line: "O rikki, m8. Wr 4 art u? Plz B. my bf 4 eva, I luv u." The feuding houses of Montague and Capulet are instead two different English schools -- a comprehensive and a grammar school, with all updated dialogue in the film in modern-day language and all roles played by teenagers. The play is being changed, according to Rawles, to help students deal with such topics as peer pressure, parent/child relationships, drug abuse, gang culture and knife culture.

In the 1996 movie version of the play that was done with modern music and dress, by Baz Lurhrman, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the action occurs in a modern Verona Beach in Miami and parts of Mexico City. This is actually a made up world, with a little from the 1940s, 1970s, and 1990s, and using a number of older well-known movies, such as Rebel Without a Cause for a backdrop. The movie includes racing cars with revving engines instead of horses, guns instead of swords and daggers. The camera is always moving around to get the action, instead of the play that moves very slowly. The director has fast cuts from one scene to another with blaring music that almost looks like a rock video at times with its color, special effects...

In fact, the dialogue is sometimes even difficult to hear and parts of the romance are lost.
One wonders what William Shakespeare would make of all these different adaptations of his plays. Given the fact that he took history and changed it to his own whims and fancies, perhaps he would not be upset at all. He may be somewhat upset, however, with the change of language between "2 B. Or not 2 B" in another one of his well-known plays instead of "To be or not to be..." In fact, isn't it the language that makes Shakespeare's plays so special? Humans, since the beginning of times, have had feuds, gone to war and killed leaders and kings. Stories like this are written in every generation. However, what makes Shakespeare so unique and memorable is the language that just flows so smoothly, especially when done by a versatile actor. These new versions of the play are good to see, because they help people face some of the conflicts that are indicative of human nature. Yet changing the language is almost as if entirely changing the entire play and not having anything of Shakespeare left at all.