final draft

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, it 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, The more they love each other, the more 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 the play is one of the most famous romantic tragedies, our group found some unreal parts such as Romeo climbing up on the wall and imagined how the story would go if it happened in the modern days, 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 the play with totally new perspective and reinterpreted as a comedy. 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. We used music, props, and exaggerated acting such as facial expression, voice tone, and mime to emphasize the ridiculousness of our performance.

 

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. Also, we could easily find out that Romeo and Juliet have something in common through their flirty conversation. Romeo says "My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." Juliet says "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hand that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss"(1. 5. 105-111). However, our group found several unrealistic parts and thought this scene wouldn't make sense if it happened in the modern life. First of all, we thought a party isn't a perfect place for the romantic first meeting because it's full of loud music and crowded people. Also, characters' lines in this scene are very emotional and quite serious like "Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged". Even though the characters are in very serious mood, it is too flirty and the fact that the characters are only 13 and 16 years old teenagers which are very immature makes audiences laugh. To describe the ridiculousness and make laughter points, we put some sources of real club in now days. First source that we emphasized was communication problem, 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. They banged their head, jumped around really heavily, and lip-synced to the song enthusiastically like drunk people in the club. Those dance moves were one of the biggest laughter point in the first scene. 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. The main point of the first scene was changing the settings and emphasizing the realism of the modern days party to make the scene hilarious.

 

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 confirm their love toward each other in this scene. Everything becomes serious by that confirmation and the real tragedy begins from this significant scene. The author used the monologue to make the scene more romantic and dramatic. Audiences can know the characters's honest feelings that arouses more audience's attention to the scene by the monologue. Additionally, their extreme emotions are exposed by their lines. "It is the East, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon"(2. 2. 3-4). Romeo expresses how Juliet is important to him by comparing Juliet to the sun which is the most significant existence in our life. Also, the balcony influences structurally to audiences. It shows Romeo looking up at Juliet like a flower looking up at the sun. 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 a lovely girl who fell in love to a girl who is crazily obsessed with Romeo. We tried to show the craziness that every normal girl has. Therefore, Juliet exaggerated her monologue, she spoke her lines jumping around the balcony with really loud and cracking 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" (2, 2, 36-39). We tried to show Juliet's immaturity instead of her characteristic that is described 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 reaches 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 thought that it won't look really cool as how they described in the book in the real life and imagined some unexpected happenings such as his clothes and hair getting messed. 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 pretended climbing up the rope and jumped in the air and 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 called Juliet, he got really frightened and crawled on the floor acting like he is trying to hide 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. Not only making the scene funnier, we described the immaturity of Romeo and Juliet.

 

The final scene was Act 3, Scene 1 that we put most effort to make the scene funnier. In the play this scene is the beginning of the peak in the story. During the battle between Mercutio and Tybalt, their emotions become very intense and shows the severe fury between the two households. "Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An Thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here my fiddle stick; here's that shall make you dance"(3. 1. 47-50). Those two sub-characters die in the scene 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.  To convert this serious battle scene to a comedy, 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. They spoke their lines with very intense and serious voice tone, but after Mercutio got stabbed, his voice tone changes like crying. 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, calm, and quite silly music from the TV show "Sponge Bob" when Romeo starts to give long speech about the 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 yawned, acted like they are going to fall asleep, and hunkered down and drew something on the ground in order to give an extreme mood change which caused laughter. In the third scene, we changed the whole setting, mood, and characteristics of the characters by putting two contrasting musics and showed it's possible to convert from serious battle scene to the hilarious comedy scene. 

 

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, audiences mostly laughed because of the two sub actors which were playboys truly enjoying in the club. In the second scene, starting of the scene which is a Juliet's exaggerated monologue made audiences start to giggle and they tried so hardly to hold their laughing when Romeo mimed. In the last scene, combination of the changing of music and the Tybalt and Mercutios' acting when they gets bored while Romeo speeches was the most hilarious and successful part of our whole project. I love comedy mostly because I think laughter exist 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. 

 

Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine, and Gail Kern. Paster. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011. Print.