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A plague on both your houses

It’s all about family in IPFW’s production of Romeo and Juliet

By Eddie Torres

Fort Wayne Reader

2018-04-20

Like any passionate teenage romance worthy of the name, Romeo & Juliet begins at a party, a party where at least one member of the destined-to-be young couple was told not to go by their parents. The romance continues against all good judgment, against the advice of friends and family, and gains strength because of it. The star-crossed lovers in Romeo & Juliet are often used as shorthand for an especially heated — and often doomed — romance, one where the heart overrules the head.

But like many a Shakespeare play, Romeo & Juliet offers plenty of material for interpretation. Just looking at the story from a different angle — without altering the text or changing the central relationship at all — can yield some pretty interesting results, and cast this seemingly familiar story in a whole new light.

In the IPFW Department of Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet — which begins its run at the Williams Theatre on April 20 — it’s the implacable rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets that’s brought up for examination. While the hatred between the two families looms over everything in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare never tells us why they hate each other so much, and that raises the question of who exactly is behaving irrationally: the head-over-heels young lovers, or the supposed elders who have forbidden the romance on the grounds of… well, because there’s this feud that’s always been there, and though no one can quite articulate why, it’s apparently worth killing over.

The IPFW Department of Theatre presents Romeo and Juliet
Fridays, April 20 and 27 at 8 PM
Saturdays, April 21 and 28 at 8 PM
Sunday, April 22 at 2 p.m.
Thursday, April 26 at 8 PM

Williams Theatre – IPFW North Campus
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd

Admission: $16 adults; $14 seniors, faculty, staff alumni; $12 groups 10 or more; $12 other college student w/ID; $5 IPFW students, high school students, children under 18.

IPFW Box Office: 260-481-6555
TTD: 260-481-4105
Ipfw.edu/tickets

Box office located in the Gates Athletic Center. Open Mon – Fri 12:30 – 6: 30 PM