Ayelet Solomon ’25
There’s more to literature than just reading, and the Sloan Scholars program took this to heart when it went to see a contemporary production of Romeo and Juliet at the Folger Theater in Southeast Washington, D.C. An important value of Sloan Scholars, led by Rabbi Hillel Broder, is to broaden the study of classic and Judaic literature beyond simply reading old texts. Students achieve this by listening to guest speakers, engaging in discussions, and, now, attending plays.
R&J is performed in a 90-year-old theater, which is a replica of a 400-year-old Elizabethan theater, but a modern contextualization makes the play seem anything but old. Maayan Singer ’26, who has seen a more faithful production, found the “modern twist” interesting and exciting.
Romeo and Juliet are members of rival political parties (the Montagues and Capulets, respectively) who cross enemy lines for the sake of foolish love. The hatred between their families is both timeless and heavily suggestive of the polarization of recent American politics. Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as hedonistic and naive, but their fatal romance is ultimately what bridges this divide.
Having been to at least five other Romeo and Juliet productions when teaching in New York, Rabbi Broder saw this particular production as the “fastest, most stimulating,” and “least traditional” he’s seen. “Visually overwhelming, but a lot of fun,” is what Rabbi Broder called the show.
Indeed, the use of electronic music, flashing lights, and frenetic choreography emulate a night club as much as a historic theater. Aviel Kahn ’26 was reminded of Fahrenheit 451 by how the actors were “on the screens and on the phones and on the social media,” and he said this seemed “very futuristic.”
In one early scene, servants of house Capulet record themselves picking a fight with servants of house Montague. The actors banter through onstage screens like they’re vlogging, but suddenly the fight bursts out of the screen and into the audience before making it to the stage, to everyone’s shock.
Make no mistake, these phone-wielding actors still speak from the original script, except for the occasional teenager-coded joke (such as “No CAPulet”). I was still surprised that I found it easier to understand Shakespeare’s language when I could hear his words matched with a character’s expression rather than in a block of text.
Dena Kahn ’27, Amollia Antine ’27, Daisy Muzin ’27, and Abby Bozof ’27 enjoy an evening of Shakespeare.
To Amy Hollander ’26, who sat next to me with her script open the entire show, it was “unbelievable the amount of clever … aspects that they picked out of the book and put into the play.” A comical example is Juliet’s famous line, “wherefore art thou Romeo,” which is spoken through an Instagram post.
Hollander noted another modern difference: “They chose to have all of Juliet’s family speak in Spanish, which I thought was really interesting, both to bring in some heritage and also some contrast … and they had subtitles on the stage.”
Shoshanna Berkowitz ’27 enjoyed a different update: costumes. Berkowitz noted how the Montagues and Capulets have opposite-colored wardrobes. The costumes are an eclectic mix of patchwork denim, pearls, floral fabrics, and ruffles that are not just incredibly stylish but also subtle indicators of personality and affiliation.
The audacious performance was not a hit to some people, like Shaked Ben Dor (one of the Bachurim), who commented that while he enjoyed the new experience and being in D.C., he didn’t like the performance itself. He later commented that he might just need some more time to process what he saw. No matter the reaction, the outing as a whole succeeded because it brought Shakespeare’s words where they are meant to be: from the page to the stage.
