Interesting AND Humorous

I find the entire idea of updating Shakespeare's plays as both interesting and humorous at the same time.  Interesting because I do love seeing what fresh ideas talented directors can do with the text.  Choices about what theme to lean on is always, at times, interesting.  Do you make the show about bad parenting?  How about bad timing?  Do you view the Friar as holy, or do you view him as a bumbling religious figure?  What about the role of the common people in the play compared to "both houses"?  What about the idea of friendship and love?  There are so many ways you can move that play towards a thematic pulse that makes it a wonderful script filled with timeless ideas!

Humorous because often those choices have nothing to do with reclaiming the story, but everything to do with trying to be "hip" or "relevant," script and themes be damned!  Why can't directors today just "trust the script"?  I can't tell you how many times I keep coming back to that quote when I am directing my own shows.  Trust the script!  It's NOT a love story, it's a play filled with MANY emotions!  Romeo rides a motorcycle, then become an uban hipster?  Why?  For what purpose thematically?  I don't mind the motorcycle if it serves as a purpose to the plot/theme the director is going for in his idea.  From what I read, this was not the case at all.  "Fundamentally, a great Shakespeare production will rise or fall not on what the actors are wearing, and whether they are barking into cell phones or slinging swords at each other, but on whether they can infuse these magnificent, challenging texts with the life blood of honest feeling and formal beauty."

I've got an idea:  Hey Boomers. . . Leave it alone.  Let the kids be the creative ones, not the grown adults who think they are doing something "fresh."  It's like finding out your parents have a TikTok account to keep their daily life "up to date" and "hip" so you can look at it and relate to them.  Yeah, it may be funny the first time, but after awhile it's just cringeworthy.  More importantly, you quickly realize that your parent's TikTok has no substance, purpose, or meaning, it's just fluff!  You know. . . like most TikTok posts.  No matter how cool they seem.

Now get off my lawn and let the actual script take over!