Would you come to see the play if there was a comic version of Romeo and Juliet? Probably most of people have never thought about the most famous romantic tragedy becoming a hilarious comedy. Basically, Romeo and Juliet is a love story about star-crossed lovers, from two different households which have been abhorring each other for a long time. There is no way that Romeo and Juliet can be together happily, more they love each other, they get into uncontrollable tragedy. Also, there are so many beautiful and powerful lines from their inexorable love that impact readers to feel like they are going to fall in love too. Although Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous romantic tragedy, our group thought this story wouldn't make sense if this happened in the modern days and we found unreal parts. Also I wanted to prove that it is possible that every story can be interpreted in various kind of way depends on how we approach. So, we approached with totally new perspective and reinterpreted as a comedy. We used music, props, and exaggerated acting such as facial expression, voice tone, and mime to emphasize the ridiculousness of our performance. We chose the Act 1, scene 5, the first meeting scene of Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene 2, the balcony scene, and Act 3 scene 1, the fighting scene between Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt, and converted to the comedy.
In the first scene that our group acted, Act 1, Scene 5, we used music and exaggerated acting to emphasize the ridiculousness of the scene. In the original story, Romeo and Juliets' first meeting scene is very romantic and beautiful. They fall in love with each other at first sight in the party. However, our group found several unrealistic parts in the scene and thought this scene wouldn't make sense if it happened in the modern life. First of all, Romeo and Juliets' lines in this scene are very emotional and quite serious like "My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss" (Act 1, Scene 5, line 106,107). However, audiences feel those words are too flirty and the fact that they are only 13 and 16 years old teenagers also makes audiences laugh. To describe the ridiculousness and make laughter points, we put some sources of real club in now days. First, we thought people need to yell at each other and keep repeat what they are saying to communicate in the club because of interruptions like loud music and crowded people. We put song 'shot' by Lmfao which is really noisy and represents typical club music. Additionally, to describe the detail of club, other actors instead of Romeo and Juliet danced and sang right next to them when they were trying to flirt each other with heavy lines. So, Romeo had no chance but to keep repeat his flirty words which cuts off the flow of their romantic mood and converts the whole scene from romance to comedy. Also, Romeo's friends show weird dance moves and act like crazy people exactly like drunk people in the club.
The second scene was a balcony scene which is one of the most beautiful and famous scene in the entire story. In the original story, Romeo and Juliet confirms their love toward each other in this scene. Everything becomes serious by that confirmation and the real tragedy begins from this significant scene. However, we tried to think outside of the box because we thought it will be extremely hilarious if we reinterpret this scene as a comedy successfully. Firstly, we slightly changed Juliet's characteristic from lovely girl who fell in love to girl who is crazily obsessed with Romeo. We tried to show the craziness that every normal girl has. Therefore, Juliet acted her monologue exaggeratingly, she spoke her lines jumping around the balcony like a tomboy with really loud voice "O 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" (Act 2, Scene 2, line 36~39). We tried to show Juliet's immaturity instead of her characteristic that is emphasized in the story: calm and gentle. Second part that we emphasized to make the scene as a comedy was when Romeo climbs up the wall of Juliet's house and reach to the balcony. It sounds really cool when the male main character climbs up the wall and reaches there like a hero, but we doubted it. We imagined that it won't look really cool as how they described in the book in the real life. So, we decided to make climbing scene as the biggest laughter point. We inserted music from the movie '"Mission Impossible" when I, Romeo in the second scene, mimed climbing. I used sunglasses as prop to make the scene more hilarious. Also, the important point of this part was Romeo acts like he is the coolest guy, but in audience's perspective, he is just a funny character. He says "Thy kinsmen are no stop to me" (2, 2, 74) which shows a guy who is crazy in love and cares nothing else but love. However, in the performance, when nurse calls Juliet, he gets really frightened and crawls the floor acting like try to hide into somewhere. Generally in the second scene, Romeo and Juliet overacted to describe Juliet's craziness and how Romeo is not cool as in the real story. So that, audience can think 'that might really happen!'
The final scene was Act 3, Scene 1 that we put most effort to make the scene more fun. In the book this scene is the beginning of the peak in the story. Two sub-characters, Mercutio and Tybalt, die, and this scene leads lots of people to death. Feud between Capulet and Montague flares, Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo kills Tyblat. After this scene, Romeo kills Paris, and finally Romeo and Juliet end up with the most horrible ending. Our group had the most difficult time in the progress because every single lines were so serious and heavy, but we couldn't change any lines. So, the first thing we started to think was changing the characteristic of Mercutio and Tybalt like how we did to Juliet and Romeo in the second scene. We made Mercutio and Tybalt cowards who pretend to be strong men. And then we came up with an idea that it will be fun if there is a mood change when Romeo appears and speaks about love and peace while Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting. We put very serious and intense music from the movie "Crows Zero" when two sub-characters are fighting with serious lines "You shall find me apt enough to that sir, an you will give me occasion. Mertucito, thou consortest with Romeo"(3. 1. 42-46). However, to give an immediate mood change, we inserted peaceful and calm music from "Sponge Bob" when Romeo starts to give long speech about love "The reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. I do protest I never injured thee but love thee better than thou canst devise till thou shalt know the reason of my love."(3. 1. 63-66). While Romeo speaks his line, Tybalt and Mercutio act like they are really bored at his speech which actually doesn't harmonize to the atmosphere of this bloody battle scene. Tybalt and Mercutio yawn, act like they are going to fall asleep, and hunker down and draw something on the ground in order to give an extreme mood change which causes laughter. In the third scene, we changed the whole setting, mood, and characteristics of the characters by putting two contrasting musics.
Fortunately, most of our ideas that we intended came out successfully. All of our group members acted adequately based on the new characteristics that we altered. Also, new concepts and laughter points in each scenes worked properly as we meant. In the first scene, repeating and yelling Romeo and Juliet's lines changed the mood from romance to comedy. Also, other two actors danced and acted like crazy people in the club in modern days to make the performance more realistic. In the second scene, we reduced lots of line and put more other sources such as overacting and mime. Also, Juliet overacted like a crazy little girl which is obsessed at a random boy, and Romeo acted like really cool but actually he was seen as a funny character. In the third scene, strong feud becomes hilarious farce by music and emphasizing ridiculousness of Romeo's line by ignoring by two other characters. Music and props also affected a lot in all three scenes. We used sunglasses in the first scene to describe people in the party and also used it in the second scene when Romeo climbs up the wall of Juliet's house. Song 'Shot' by Lmfao contributed establishing the setting of club in the first scene by providing the whole back ground music. In the second scene, music from "Mission impossible" doubled the funniness when I mimed climbing up the wall like a secret agent with sunglasses. Music was the most important part in the third scene. We used two songs to change the mood instantly. I love comedy mostly because I think laughter exist in everywhere even if people can't realize it easily. Like how our group did to Romeo and Juliet, I believe that every kind of story can be converted to comedy by approaching with different perspective.
