The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet Was Produced by Quinnipiac University and Staged at New Haven’S Long Wharf Theatre in April of 2004

Troubling Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare's Tragedy of Religious iolence in Belfast and Beyond Crystal Brian Quinnipiac University The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet was produced by Quinnipiac University and staged at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre in April of 2004. In March of 2005 the student ensemble that created the script will travel to Northern Ireland to meet with former combatants and victims of the Troubles engaged in the difficult and vital work of bridging age-old divides of hatred and violence. These experiences in Northern Ireland will inform a final version of the script, to be produced at the Long Wharf Theatre in May, 2005, as the culminating experience in a two-and-a-half-year process of research and creation. In the fall of 2003 a group of Quinnipiac University students, struck by the ever-growing incidences of terrorism, violence, and religious-based conflict around the globe, felt compelled to articulate their concerns through a collaboratively-conceived piece of theatre. Students explored faith-driven conflicts—including the Pal- estinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East—as potential settings for a devised theatre project. Simultaneously the ensemble read various theatrical texts, searching for a play that could be effectively adapted to portray the seemingly endless cycle of religious violence. Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare in the sixteenth century during a period of intense religious strife and depicting an ancient feud which is born anew in each succeeding generation, offered potential parallels with many contemporary global conflicts. (Indeed, Shakespeare’s tragedy has often been used as a vehicle for exploring issues of political and cultural conflict.) Ultimately, however, students selected one particular cycle of religious violence to furnish an organically viable context for Shakespeare’s tragedy—that of the Troubles of Northern Ireland. As in Shakespeare’s time, a struggle complicated by economic and social factors locates its roots in a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant faiths. One may argue, however, that issues of religious identification are not the true source of the conflict, but rather furnish convenient labels masking a profound struggle for economic and political power in the northern counties of Ireland. “The Troubles,” the name the Northern Irish have given to the political conflict between Republicans (predominantly Catholics) and Unionists (predominantly Protestants), has resulted in more than thirty years of unceasing violence and 53 54 Crystal Brian the deaths of almost 4000 Irish citizens—combatants, victims, Protestants, Catholics, adults, children—all trapped in the culmination of a struggle which has stained the country’s history for hundreds of years. Although Ireland has struggled for centuries against domination by Great Britain, historians generally cite January 30, 1972, “Bloody Sunday”—the day British soldiers fired upon unarmed protestors in Derry, Northern Ireland—as the beginning of the modern “Troubles.” That infamous day became a symbol for Northern Irishmen—Catholics and Protestants alike—of the senseless loss and horror perpetrated in the name of religious, economic and political freedom. The era of “Bloody Sunday” seemed an appropriate setting for our adaptation. Drawing on the expertise of faculty in the political science and history de- partments, we immersed ourselves in the historical and political complexities of North- ern Ireland. Students conducted extensive research, focusing on first-hand accounts of those who have suffered during the violence which has torn the tiny country for generations. Gradually, as we read, discussed, watched documentaries, films, IRA recruit- ment videos and other source material, the group formulated primary goals. In order to devise a piece of theatre which would powerfully affect audiences with the need to find peaceful means for conflict resolution, the ensemble would have to find a way to impress upon media-desensitized audiences the personal, visceral horrors of death and destruction created by terrorist acts in the name of religious freedom. Shakespeare’s tragedy would draw our audiences with a familiar story; our goal would be to “make strange” that story by emphasizing the violence of angry men and women focused on vengeance and retribution rather than the love story of Romeo and Juliet. The original material we would devise—monologues and scenes—would be taken from true accounts, but would be fictionalized to a certain extent, the ensemble agreeing that names and specifics should be changed out of respect for the victims of violence. Workshops throughout the fall semester focused on selecting which stories to dramatize and on determining where and how the original material would be woven throughout the text of Shakespeare’s play. We extensively cut the source text, altering certain plot points in order to make the storyline consistent with our 20th Century, Northern Ireland setting. For example, it was necessary to eliminate Shakespeare’s prince since there was no state authority in Northern Ireland recognized by all sides of the conflict. The prince’s action was divided between the Friar and a character we created based on a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer. The Friar character became a Catholic priest whose desire to achieve peaceful conflict resolution led him to the dangerous decision to secretly marry a Protestant (Romeo) and a Catholic (Juliet). We began by structuring the piece as two distinct stories, Shakespeare’s tragedy and that of the people of Northern Ireland, with scenes alternating between iambic pentameter and original material. The workshop process eventually led to a much more integrated script, in which Shakespeare’s characters retained their names and central storylines, but were given “back stories” that revealed how the Northern Irish conflict affected their actions within Shakespeare’s plot. For example, in our text Romeo is a young Protestant seeking to avoid involvement in the violence, but pressured by his friend, Mercutio, to become a volunteer for a Loyalist paramilitary group. Lady Capulet’s The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 55 bitterness in the scene after Tybalt’s murder is deepened by her memories of the shooting of the innocent citizens of Derry by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday. The dramaturgical challenge of integrating contemporary Irish language with Elizabethan poetry was difficult and ongoing throughout the creative process. One unifying element which smoothed stylistic shifts was the Irish accent used by actors throughout the text. The accent imbued the contemporary material with a poetic quality that made it seem less jarring when juxtaposed with Shakespeare’s poetry; conversely, when spoken with an Irish brogue, the iambic pentameter assumed a rougher, more contemporary feel. Another language-related issue was the question of whether contemporary expressions, some of them profane, should be expurgated from the Irish sections of the text since Shakespeare’s Elizabethan bawdy is not perceived by contemporary audiences as profane. After consulting with natives of Northern Ireland, the creative team ultimately decided that deleting the profanities would seriously undermine the cultural authenticity of the Irish material. Expressions which register as profane to American ears are commonplace in Ireland and an integral component of the color and energy of the Irish speech. The political and social goals of The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet were not limited to the audience. The piece was also conceived as an experiment in embodied learning, a methodology of teaching based on the belief that the imaginative perfor- mance process of identifying with a dramatic character and situation offers powerful potential for learning and transformation on multiple levels. If student actors learned to identify emotionally and intellectually with victims and combatants of the Troubles, the world view of those students would be more deeply impacted than if they studied Northern Ireland in a more conventional and objective context. The process of identifying with the realities of the Troubles was a challenging one for student performers since we were not working in Northern Ireland. However, the fact that a substantial number of the cast were of Irish heritage, some with cousins and other family members still living in Northern Ireland, was helpful in creating a sense of community with the Northern Irish. The planned campus visits of Gerry Adams and Betty Williams—two important political figures of Northern Ireland—had been important factors in our decision to devise The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet. Adams and Williams shared experiences and feelings which helped the students engage with the material in a more visceral and personal fashion, intensifying students’ understanding—emotional and intellectual—of the community of northern Ireland and the pain caused by the long- lived inability to resolve conflict without violence. Portions of Adams’ and Williams’ public addresses, as well as material gathered from small group meetings with the cast, were integrated into the text. Each ensemble member, assisted by our two production dramaturges, chose the account which he or she would perform. Selecting the stories with which they felt the strongest connections enabled the performers to identify intensely with the characters devised from our research; the actors imaginatively merged with victim or perpetrator. As with our earlier work with veterans and student interviewers/perform-

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