Romeo and Juliet–Part Three (photo heavy)

And then everything hits the fan of course…Juliet’s cousin Tybalt kills Mercutio….

Mercutio dies..whispering: “A plague on both your houses!”

Romeo then kills Tybalt….

Everybody has a huge argument about who deserves what, and Romeo is banished. Both Romeo and Juliet are overwrought by all that happened just hours after their marriage. Romeo climbs the balcony one more time and the lovers spend their one and only night together. In the morning the lark wakes Romeo, and he prepares to go. Romeo: “Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die.”

And then? Well, Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she is to be married to Paris, Juliet freaks out and goes to Friar Lawrence who concocts an elixir to make it look as though Juliet is dead. Juliet goes home, agrees in word only to marry Paris, but then alone in her bed, gulps back the potion. Lady Capulet and the nurse find her “dead” in the morning. Much wailing and caterwauling ensue.

And here lies Juliet asleep in the tomb.

Meanwhile (and I so hate this part…and everytime want it to be different) Friar John does not get Friar Lawrences message to Romeo in time. Romeo’s friend Balthazar tells Romeo the news that Juliet is dead “Her body sleeps in Capul’s monument and her immortal part with angels lives.” Romeo: “Then I defy you stars!” And he finds an Apothecary/Herbalist, gets some poison, and gallops back to Verona and to Juliets tomb.

Paris is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets the worst of Romeo’s out of control grief. So Paris dies. Romeo sees Juliet—“O my love! My wife! Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty…”

He opens the poison bottle “Here’s to my love!”

“O true Apothecary! Thy drugs are quick.”

“Thus with a kiss I die”

Of course, Friar Lawrence is too late to save Romeo, and Juliet awakens. In horror she comes fully awake and sees Romeo dead beside her. Friar Lawrence hears noise and runs. (Coward.) Juliet: “Poison I see hath been his timeless end…..I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison doth yet hang on them….”

But finds no friendly drop. She grabs Romeo’s knife. “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.”

The crowds gather, the princess is roused, the Montegue and Capulet families arrive and the full sad tale is told to all by Friar Lawrence. Princess: “….see what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords too, have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d!!!!”

The Capulets and the Montegues in sorrow mend their hate.

Princess: “A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardoned, and some punished;

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

The End.

PS Notes: Our Romeo has never been on stage before this year. He is dyslexic and has tremendous trouble reading. One would have NEVER known this as he is a natural actor and the lines flowed beautifully. We are so lucky that he is only a junior this year!

The chemistry between Romeo and Juliet was incredibly believable on stage, but they fought like brother and sister off-stage. “Well, you’ve just got to die differently, because you land on my throat and I can’t breathe when you die the way you have been dying!”

Because some of our students had never spoken Spanish before, they had live-in weekends with our Hispanic families and learned the proper inflections and pronunciations of their lines.

All in all, it was a roaring success. I could not be more proud of an amazing group of kids.

And now, m’dears….we are off to Istanbul! Adventures ahead!

:)xo

Adagio