NOW PLAYING: JUST ROMEO AND JULIET

Site-specific theatre innovator Josh Randall (Blackout, Thom Pain) is back with a new pop-up that streamlines Shakespeare’s most read play down to a sleek 40-minute two hander that covers just the core story beats. We saw the final dress rehearsals and it works.

We checked in with director Randall about the experience!

Just Romeo and Juliet is currently running in Los Angeles’ Koreatown through November 4th. Tickets are $30. For more follow @justromeoandjuliet on Instagram.

This is No Proscenium’s NOW PLAYING, a look at ongoing immersive experiences & events. To learn more about how your event could be considered for the feature check out How To Get Covered By NoPro.

No Proscenium: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?

Josh Randall: Just Romeo and Juliet is an all-male reframing of the classic love story. Much like the title suggests, it’s just the scenes between the two lovers and the actors switch their roles with each performance. The venue is an abandoned 90’s nightclub located in the middle of the city and it provides a beautifully sparse and dark backdrop for such a tragic story. Much like in Elizabethan times, both actors are men and they switch their roles with every performance. This is Shakespeare for people who hate Shakespeare. It’s accessible, fast, and sexy — just the way he wanted it to be.

NP: What was the inspiration for your experience?

JR: This show has been living in my head for almost 20 years. Everything just lined up right now to find a way to get it out and into the world. A venue opened up and I just ended up meeting the two specific actors who I knew were a perfect fit. Other than that, it just takes luck and a huge leap of faith to make the decision to jump into the water and make it happen.

Get NoPro Newswire’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

SubscribeSubscribe

I’ve always loved this show and I’ve always loved Shakespeare, I’ve just rarely ever seen his shows performed in the way that makes me engaged as an audience member. I feel like R&J in particular is one of his most accessible. It’s fast, the language is relatively easy to understand, and the emotions are so universal that it’s easy to connect with the characters when the actors hit it right. It kinda reminds of Stephen King’s ‘Cujo’ which apparently he wrote while doing copious amounts of cocaine. There’s a reckless abandon to this book you don’t find in most of his other novels and weirdly, R&J feels similar to me. It’s not as flowery and obtuse as some of his other work. He just gets right down to the point. The “…two hours traffic of our stage.” indeed.

NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?

JR: I’ve always considered Shakespeare to be the original immersive creator. His plays are intensely dependent on direct communication with the audience and maintaining their attention throughout the show. Shows had to be fast and exciting to catch a Renaissance crowd’s attention and I would argue most of what we consider to be “immersive” these days (and I’m referring to immersive in the “truly 360 immersive’’ sense, not interactive, site-specific, or LARPing) stems from this period. The crowd becomes part of the show because the show is literally happening FOR them. It brings the language front and center and focuses on the text as a true means of communication with the audience, not just literary description or internal monologue. The text becomes alive in a way that we rarely see it performed these days. My goal was to use those original Elizabethan staging techniques to create a very modern show that speaks to today’s audience.

NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?

JR: It’s hard to overstate how important the actors are to this process specifically, but also to every show I direct. Once rehearsals begin and the actors start putting everything up on its feet, everything changes, in the most beautiful way. I’ve been inspired, challenged, and pushed by Mason and Mateo (our two actors, both playing Romeo AND Juliet) in a way that has surprised me. They’ve taken the original concept and brought it somewhere I never thought we could go. And yet here we are. I’m intensely proud of all of our work on this production, but I specifically give props to the actors for owning the material in the way they did and allowing the show to grow from them, and for them. It’s been a joy to watch.

NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?

JR: We say in the beginning of the show that this production is just a “version” of the whole story. That we are not, in fact, telling the whole story. If you don’t know the gist of R&J, we recommend revisiting the play and remembering who the main characters are and their relationship to the two lovers. There are several points of inspiration that people may or may not pick up on; Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Shakespeare in Love, and more — but at the end of the day, this production stands on its own as a reframing of one of the most classic love stories of our time. And with that, just come and check it out already!

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, new home of NoPro’s show listings.

NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!

In addition to the No Proscenium website, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Facebook, LinkedIn,YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Patreon Backer exclusive Discord.