Suchtweetsorrow
Encyclopedia
Suchtweetsorrow is a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in tweets.
During the period of five weeks (April 10, 2010 – May 12, 2010) six professional actors performed the play on Twitter
and other web devices. The actors improvised around a prepared story grid and could interact with each other and react to followers, fans, real events and comments via Twitter
. The play was a cooperation between the Royal Shakespeare Company
and Mudlark Productions.
's love is taken to the 21st century and is set in an unknown town in Great Britain
. The feud
between the Montagues and the Capulets begins with a tragic car accident in 2000 where Susan Capulet, Juliet's mother, dies. The driver, Montague Sr., survives with heavy injuries. Mr. Capulet, a successful property developer, was left with three children: Jess, Tybalt and Juliet. He remarried in 2002. Montague Sr., a landscape painter, still lives in the area with his wife and son.
Ten years later Juliet is the only child still living at home. Her older sister Jess, who's nickname 'Nurse' comes from nursing her younger siblings, lives and works as a trainee solicitor in a nearby town. Their brother Tybalt lives two hours away in a public school. He has been sent to boarding school at the age of 7 and has never settled in any of them ever since. Jess as the oldest tries to keep the family together and has close contact to her father and sister and does her best to communicate with her brother, too.
for good. In the Meanwhile Jess who is getting in shape for the London Marathon
, convinced Juliet to join the online platform Twitter
. On the other side of the town Mercutio, Romeo's best friend wakes up with a hangover and a missing mobile and tweets away the events of the night. As the 10th anniversary of the accident is nearing everybody is reminded and thinks about the events in the past in a different way. Juliet remembers her mother but is also thinking about her birthday coming up. Jess begins to feel depressed about their mothers death and feels that Montague Sr. should have been prosecuted for murder. Mercutio remembers the big fight where Montague Sr. was beat up by 'Crapulet'/Mr.Capulet and announces his hate on twitter. He was too young to have known about the real events going on but he has grown so close to the Montagues that he knows on which side he belongs to. Romeo has not been convinced to join Twitter yet.
On the anniversary of Mrs. Capulet's death the yearly mourning is disrupted by Tybalt getting expelled from school because of drug-dealing. Mercutio is announcing this day Montague Day as he thinks they should stand proud. As a result Montague Sr. told him to keep his Twitter profile on the low. So he is tweeting about a girl he scored last night instead.
On the mean-time Laurence Friar, the local coffee shop owner, is tweeting inspirational messages and memories about Mrs. Capulet.
Tybalt's expulsion casts dark shadows over the family and ends with his father deciding that he won't be coming with them to Australia
. Laurence Friar finds out about the family troubles of the Capulets and offers his help and his memories of their mother to all three children. Jess accepts his offer and visits him but his memories doesn't quite match up with her own especially Laurence's version of her mother's friendship to Montague Sr. In the meanwhile Juliet returns home very upset as somebody has wrote MONTAGUE IS INNOCENT on her P.E. Shirt. Romeo has been persuaded to join Twitter
and is supported by Laurence who also visits the Capulets at their house to network and bond with Tybalt and his father.
The next day Juliet returns from school in a happy mood, her friends have made CAPULET AND PROUD t-shirts and for that she tweets about her upcoming birthday party: Proud to be a Capulet – dying to be 16. Mercutio and Romeo are hanging out at Laurence's coffee shop with Montague Sr. as Tybalt arrives. Laurence can prevent them from fighting but the situation between the families is more tensed than ever. Mr. Capulet has a talk with Tybalt about his future and proposes that he could start working in the property business and look after himself when the others move to Australia. Tybalt is liking the idea of sorting himself out.
The next evening Mercutio gets into a funny tweet-flirt with an older woman, Jess, in a local pub after having visited a football match and making a fool out of himself, ranting in front of a TV-camera. Laurence Friar also visited the football match, sponsoring a young player and calming down Tybalt, who has watched Mercutio on the screen. Later that night Romeo knocked Tybalt out with his first punch and Jess broke it up before it got worse.
:what is love? Juliet's followers discover that she writes her own songs and demand lyrics and uploads of her singing.
While being grounded Romeo spends the day playing Xbox
and chatting with a female player named Rosaline on Xboxlive. Mercutio is starting a #freeromeo campaign on Twitter
, Juliet is thinking about a theme for her birthday party and Laurence Friar is taking his time to plan his table tennis
tournament.
Juliet has finally found a theme for her birthday party, a masked ball, and tweets away the news while Romeo still spends the day at home and develops feelings for the female player Rosaline. He confides with Mercutio later that day and finds him repelled by Romeo's use of the word 'relationship'.
Mercutio is still working on the #freeromeo campaign while romeo is getting more and more stressed out at home. Rosaline has abandoned him and is never to return. Tybalt spends the day at Laurence's smoking pot. Juliet's mask ball is in the making and Jess finds herself left alone with the task of organizing it. Juliet posts an open invitation on Facebook
.
The day before the party: everybody is excited especially Juliet and Jess, who had asked Laurence to keep the party a drug-free zone. Romeo is still depressed about Rosaline ditching him and is cheered up by Mercutio who is planning to crash Juliet's party. Tybalt, who is suspecting them to crash, is posting threats for them on twitter.
Juliet's party: Tybalt and Laurence are useless as bouncers so crashers are inevitable. Mercutio and Romeo are having fun crashing and Romeo spots a cute girl in a pink mask. Juliet's date for the night gets off with another girl but she sees a boy in funny mask. Jess sees Romeo and Juliet snogging later that night. The party ends with Juliet going upstairs to her room and waiting for Romeo. After a few moments hesitating he runs upstairs.
Jess wakes up the next day with the house looking like a bomb-site and discovering Juliet in bed with Romeo. After advising her to get her lover out of the house before Tybalt wakes up she rushes off to the London marathon
. Tybalt drags himself down to London to support his sister after having a quick look on Romeos tweets about a little girl he spent the night with. Mercutio discovers a change while hanging out with Romeo as he is not interested in fooling around as usually. After tweeting anonymously about last night Romeo and Juliet set up a date for the next morning and Juliet, still not knowing who Romeo truly is, goes to London
to support Jess.
The next day the pieces are slowly fitting together. Tybalt discovers that Romeo is flirting with his little sister and Mercutio begins to realize that he is losing Romeo to his new love. Laurence also discovers the new romance and approves thinking this would encourage the healing process between the two families. Jess, who was unaware of Juliet not knowing Romeo's identity, reveals the secret to Juliet. Romeo trying to confess discovers that she already knows and spends the evening apologizing and explaining. Juliet, astonished about the news, needs time to think.
Tybalt spends the next day with his father who is getting ready for Australia
. He decides to put Tybalt in charge of the family interests in the UK with Laurence as mentor. Tybalt is thrilled and is also pleased that Juliet has stopped communicating with Romeo. Romeo spends the day with his family too, having a deep talk about love with his father. By the end of the day he thinks about letting Juliet go. Mercutio also gets in touch with his family, who sent him a very formal email. His wish to be a true Montague deepens and he tries to confide with Romeo only discovering that he had blocked him on twitter.
Jess and Laurence arrange a meeting between the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in order for them to sort things out. After having spent a whole day offline and thinking, Juliet has discovered that her feeling for Romeo are stronger than she thought. Laurence also gets Tybalt to help him out with the tournament but also discovers Mercutio and him fighting all over Twitter
. Tybalt is teasing Mercutio about Romeo abandoning his best friend. Mercutio is getting more and more frustrated about it. Juliet and Romeo spend a long time alone in Laurence's apartment.
Laurence's ping-pong tournament takes place with Tybalt winning all the way only getting defeated by Mercutio in the finals. His victory doesn't improve Mercutio's mood though. Romeo and Juliet spend the day with sexual adventures. Tybalt discovers that Juliet has blocked him on twitter.
Juliet persuades Laurence to build a love shack for her and Romeo. Although Jess thinks this romance is moving way too fast Laurence agrees. Juliet surprises Romeo with the den and they discover the Laurence is qualified to perform humanist weddings. They arrange a mock wedding on Twitter where Jess ignores the request to perform as a witness.
Mercutio discovers that somebody has hacked his Twitter account and even apologized to Tybalt who on the other hand doesn't even notice because he is angry about last nights result and the quality of dope Laurence has given him. He confronts Laurence only to be surprised by Jess who wanted to confide with Laurence about the last events. She finds him giving drugs to Tybalt instead and is outrageous. The Montague side of the events ten years ago are uncovered also revealing that Mrs. Capulet was in love with Montague Sr.. Romeo and Juliet sneak off to a hotel that night without telling anybody.
and also married Romeo at the registry office yesterday – no joke. Laurence tells Tybalt that Romeo and Juliet have been meeting up at the coffee shop and Mercutio finds out about Juliet being Romeo's mystery girl. As a result Tybalt is out for Romeo's blood and Mercutio wants to beat up some Capulets at the night's football game. Romeo tries to calm everybody down, he wants no fight at all.
Everybody goes to the football match and Jess loses track of Tybalt after having been separated due to crowd troubles. Romeo gets lost too. Nobody knows what's going on. Mercutio finally shows up in an ambulance and later at the hospital. After joking around he curses all the Capulets and Montagues and dies.
The next day Romeo is laying low and tweets Mercutio with no reply. He also tweets Juliet that he is safe but not at Laurence's. As the day goes on his tweets to Mercutio grow more anxious. In the meanwhile news of Tybalt's death reach the Capulet house along with rumors that Romeo was the one who killed him. Juliet does not believe these accusations and is terrified that Romeo might be dead too. She also threatens to cut her wrists. Jess, who is worried about her hysteric reactions, agrees to meet up with Laurence, who still tweets that Tybalt's death was an accident, to sort things out.
Romeo realizes that Mercutio is dead and Juliet finally believes him being alive. Jess sneaks Juliet out of the house and brings her to Laurence's where Romeo has been hiding ever since. They decide that it is the best decision to get Romeo out of the country and that Juliet should not go with him.
Romeo is laying low in an unspecified European country and finds out that Laurence had let his mouth run away with him. Juliet finds out that Romeo really killed Tybalt. She confronts Romeo on Twitter but nothing is resolved.
Juliet reads the tweets of the night of Tybalt's death and realizes that he has been to blame. She apologizes to Romeo and announces herself as Mrs Montague. She begs Jess to let her move in rather than to having to move to Australia
. Mr. Capulet storms off to Laurence's coffee shop and accuses him of helping his daughter to run away from home.
Jess persuades Juliet to go home with her and after Laurence's refusal to send him money Romeo gets some money together and returns to England
.
Juliet is said to move to Australia
with her stepmother on Wednesday, no arguments. Jess is still disappointed about her father and keeps the distance to the family. Laurence tries to help Juliet and gets chased away. After that he leaves some strange messages on his website about leaving the milk in his apartment while he was away. Romeo is beseeching Juliet not to go and constantly tries to get in touch with Laurence. After that he switches his phone off.
Juliet announces that she is getting settled with the idea of moving to Sydney
. Jess is pleased to hear that and concentrates on her career plans. Laurence also encourages Juliet but also made some tweets about junction 10 which turns out to be a hotel he settles in later reminding Romeo of their meeting. Romeo's phone is still switched off. Juliet sneaks off to Laurence's apartment and sent a series of twitpics of the 'milk' she was drinking and tweets about her future together with Romeo. After that she passes out.
Romeo turns on his phone finally and understands Juliet's tweets as suicide notes only to be assured by her seemingly dead body in Laurence's apartment. He takes some pills washed down with whiskey. Jess and Laurence tuned in too late to stop him. Juliet awakes with Romeo's dead body beside her. She ignores Jess's tweets and kills herself by cutting her wrists. Jess rushes off to Laurence's apartment and finds the two dead bodies. Laurence, too afraid to come home, drives around and is depressed about the consequences of his plan. Jess begs him to come back to help her understand the disaster.
Jess wakes up with a hangover and is supported by many of her followers on Twitter
. Laurence finally decides to come home and advices a young hitchhiker on the way to return home. Jess notices a picture in the middle of the town, it is a painting of her mother by Montague with a note saying 'sorry'. Then a final message from Tybalt's account appears for her: I'm so sorry. Come home. Dad x.
and Robert Pattinson
. Her father is very strict and she is not allowed very much but her personality is set to obey most of the time and she enjoys being at home in her room. She doesn't seem to be very popular and doesn't have so many friends besides her sister. As she was still too young to know about the events going on the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues seems strange to her.
. Since their mother died she has been the mother for her younger siblings that's why they nicknamed her 'nurse'. She lives on her own and has a small apartment in a nearby town. She tries to keep the family together and keeps close contact to her sister and dad and her brother too. As the oldest she has the most memories of their mother and still blames Montague Sr. for her death.
, the internet platform, using small comments with 140 characters (tweets) to tell their followers what they were up to. Although other internet platforms, Facebook
, Xboxlive, Audioboo
, Youtube
and Wordpress
, were used too Twitter
as the main media was even more useful to perform as the people who were interested in seeing this event could just follow the characters or even just their favorite one. The actors improvised around a prepared story grid and were free to interpret the events in their own way using their own words. The feature that came out of this was a live story-telling situation which could definitely also be based on real events. Followers who tuned in later could have always had the impression they're following somebody's real life story. This resembles Orson Welles
'War of the Worlds' being read on the radio back in the days. The result was the same. The other media represented, such as Youtube
, were used to simply support the tweets in a more striking way. Juliets video posts on Youtube
had the function of showing her as a real person with a real voice and also to simply describe her character and her environment. The fact that Romeo was really found playing Call of Duty
on Xboxlive made the realness of the character even more profound as you could actually join him in his game. The variety of the media usage made it easier for the followers to connect to the characters and certainly displayed the variety of streams used by the youth of the 21st century. This made it possible to take the story of Romeo and Juliet
to modern times and to get the younger generation more interested in Shakespearean Literature.
s against muslim
s, muslim
s against hindus, people part of different countries fighting each other, e.g. people from India
don't want British sons in-law, black against white or even people with different political backgrounds. The hatred portrayed in the play does not seem to be so intense as it is liked to be.
posters but on the other hand she seems like a sexual experienced mid twenty who likes to share details about her sex life publicly. Based upon these statements the characterization of the play seems very unstable and not well-thought-out at all.
was certainly a good idea but the conversion needs to be more thought-out. The idea of a live story-telling was easy at the beginning of the play as the events were not so dramatic. The people could still follow it as a live-stream of somebody's real life, but when the story developed more and more edges it became harder for the followers to see the realism within the play. Hannah Nicklin, one of the main critics, posted on her blog the comment: “show, don't tell.”and she's right. Some events should have been posted in a more dramatic way, like Romeo's and Tybalt's first fight. The number of videos showing guys knocking each other out is huge, so why not follow the trend? The variety of internet media used was already good but could have been better and more broader. The way of directly telling people about their feelings or events seems to wear out from time to time and 'show, don't tell' seems a good way to prevent it. Another example for this would be Romeo's and Juliet's deaths. The realism gets totally lost as it seems pretty hard to believe that either one of them would post their death/suicide of twitter. Basically the whole area of feelings is hard to portray within such a large media as the internet. The question whether or not this is possible or even appropriate is not answered by any of the critics.
During the period of five weeks (April 10, 2010 – May 12, 2010) six professional actors performed the play on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and other web devices. The actors improvised around a prepared story grid and could interact with each other and react to followers, fans, real events and comments via Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. The play was a cooperation between the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
and Mudlark Productions.
Plot
The story of Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
's love is taken to the 21st century and is set in an unknown town in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. The feud
Feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...
between the Montagues and the Capulets begins with a tragic car accident in 2000 where Susan Capulet, Juliet's mother, dies. The driver, Montague Sr., survives with heavy injuries. Mr. Capulet, a successful property developer, was left with three children: Jess, Tybalt and Juliet. He remarried in 2002. Montague Sr., a landscape painter, still lives in the area with his wife and son.
Ten years later Juliet is the only child still living at home. Her older sister Jess, who's nickname 'Nurse' comes from nursing her younger siblings, lives and works as a trainee solicitor in a nearby town. Their brother Tybalt lives two hours away in a public school. He has been sent to boarding school at the age of 7 and has never settled in any of them ever since. Jess as the oldest tries to keep the family together and has close contact to her father and sister and does her best to communicate with her brother, too.
First Week
The story starts with Mr.Capulet deciding to take his family to AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
for good. In the Meanwhile Jess who is getting in shape for the London Marathon
London Marathon
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition, which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money,...
, convinced Juliet to join the online platform Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. On the other side of the town Mercutio, Romeo's best friend wakes up with a hangover and a missing mobile and tweets away the events of the night. As the 10th anniversary of the accident is nearing everybody is reminded and thinks about the events in the past in a different way. Juliet remembers her mother but is also thinking about her birthday coming up. Jess begins to feel depressed about their mothers death and feels that Montague Sr. should have been prosecuted for murder. Mercutio remembers the big fight where Montague Sr. was beat up by 'Crapulet'/Mr.Capulet and announces his hate on twitter. He was too young to have known about the real events going on but he has grown so close to the Montagues that he knows on which side he belongs to. Romeo has not been convinced to join Twitter yet.
On the anniversary of Mrs. Capulet's death the yearly mourning is disrupted by Tybalt getting expelled from school because of drug-dealing. Mercutio is announcing this day Montague Day as he thinks they should stand proud. As a result Montague Sr. told him to keep his Twitter profile on the low. So he is tweeting about a girl he scored last night instead.
On the mean-time Laurence Friar, the local coffee shop owner, is tweeting inspirational messages and memories about Mrs. Capulet.
Tybalt's expulsion casts dark shadows over the family and ends with his father deciding that he won't be coming with them to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Laurence Friar finds out about the family troubles of the Capulets and offers his help and his memories of their mother to all three children. Jess accepts his offer and visits him but his memories doesn't quite match up with her own especially Laurence's version of her mother's friendship to Montague Sr. In the meanwhile Juliet returns home very upset as somebody has wrote MONTAGUE IS INNOCENT on her P.E. Shirt. Romeo has been persuaded to join Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and is supported by Laurence who also visits the Capulets at their house to network and bond with Tybalt and his father.
The next day Juliet returns from school in a happy mood, her friends have made CAPULET AND PROUD t-shirts and for that she tweets about her upcoming birthday party: Proud to be a Capulet – dying to be 16. Mercutio and Romeo are hanging out at Laurence's coffee shop with Montague Sr. as Tybalt arrives. Laurence can prevent them from fighting but the situation between the families is more tensed than ever. Mr. Capulet has a talk with Tybalt about his future and proposes that he could start working in the property business and look after himself when the others move to Australia. Tybalt is liking the idea of sorting himself out.
The next evening Mercutio gets into a funny tweet-flirt with an older woman, Jess, in a local pub after having visited a football match and making a fool out of himself, ranting in front of a TV-camera. Laurence Friar also visited the football match, sponsoring a young player and calming down Tybalt, who has watched Mercutio on the screen. Later that night Romeo knocked Tybalt out with his first punch and Jess broke it up before it got worse.
Second Week
As a result of yesterday's fight Romeo got grounded while Tybalt gets praised for fighting a Montague. Jess is helping her stepmother to sell her health products and discovers a painting of Montague showing her mother. At the same time Romeo listens to his father talking about love and he asks himself and his followers on TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
:what is love? Juliet's followers discover that she writes her own songs and demand lyrics and uploads of her singing.
While being grounded Romeo spends the day playing Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and chatting with a female player named Rosaline on Xboxlive. Mercutio is starting a #freeromeo campaign on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Juliet is thinking about a theme for her birthday party and Laurence Friar is taking his time to plan his table tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
tournament.
Juliet has finally found a theme for her birthday party, a masked ball, and tweets away the news while Romeo still spends the day at home and develops feelings for the female player Rosaline. He confides with Mercutio later that day and finds him repelled by Romeo's use of the word 'relationship'.
Mercutio is still working on the #freeromeo campaign while romeo is getting more and more stressed out at home. Rosaline has abandoned him and is never to return. Tybalt spends the day at Laurence's smoking pot. Juliet's mask ball is in the making and Jess finds herself left alone with the task of organizing it. Juliet posts an open invitation on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
.
The day before the party: everybody is excited especially Juliet and Jess, who had asked Laurence to keep the party a drug-free zone. Romeo is still depressed about Rosaline ditching him and is cheered up by Mercutio who is planning to crash Juliet's party. Tybalt, who is suspecting them to crash, is posting threats for them on twitter.
Juliet's party: Tybalt and Laurence are useless as bouncers so crashers are inevitable. Mercutio and Romeo are having fun crashing and Romeo spots a cute girl in a pink mask. Juliet's date for the night gets off with another girl but she sees a boy in funny mask. Jess sees Romeo and Juliet snogging later that night. The party ends with Juliet going upstairs to her room and waiting for Romeo. After a few moments hesitating he runs upstairs.
Jess wakes up the next day with the house looking like a bomb-site and discovering Juliet in bed with Romeo. After advising her to get her lover out of the house before Tybalt wakes up she rushes off to the London marathon
London Marathon
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition, which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money,...
. Tybalt drags himself down to London to support his sister after having a quick look on Romeos tweets about a little girl he spent the night with. Mercutio discovers a change while hanging out with Romeo as he is not interested in fooling around as usually. After tweeting anonymously about last night Romeo and Juliet set up a date for the next morning and Juliet, still not knowing who Romeo truly is, goes to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to support Jess.
Third Week
Jess finishes the marathon successfully and is supported by Tybalt and Laurence but not even congratulated by Juliet who spends the day at the house with her new lover. Romeo still hasn't told her that he is a Montague. Tybalt found out that Juliet has lost her virginity on her birthday but still hasn't connected that to Romeo's romantic tweets yet.The next day the pieces are slowly fitting together. Tybalt discovers that Romeo is flirting with his little sister and Mercutio begins to realize that he is losing Romeo to his new love. Laurence also discovers the new romance and approves thinking this would encourage the healing process between the two families. Jess, who was unaware of Juliet not knowing Romeo's identity, reveals the secret to Juliet. Romeo trying to confess discovers that she already knows and spends the evening apologizing and explaining. Juliet, astonished about the news, needs time to think.
Tybalt spends the next day with his father who is getting ready for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He decides to put Tybalt in charge of the family interests in the UK with Laurence as mentor. Tybalt is thrilled and is also pleased that Juliet has stopped communicating with Romeo. Romeo spends the day with his family too, having a deep talk about love with his father. By the end of the day he thinks about letting Juliet go. Mercutio also gets in touch with his family, who sent him a very formal email. His wish to be a true Montague deepens and he tries to confide with Romeo only discovering that he had blocked him on twitter.
Jess and Laurence arrange a meeting between the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in order for them to sort things out. After having spent a whole day offline and thinking, Juliet has discovered that her feeling for Romeo are stronger than she thought. Laurence also gets Tybalt to help him out with the tournament but also discovers Mercutio and him fighting all over Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. Tybalt is teasing Mercutio about Romeo abandoning his best friend. Mercutio is getting more and more frustrated about it. Juliet and Romeo spend a long time alone in Laurence's apartment.
Laurence's ping-pong tournament takes place with Tybalt winning all the way only getting defeated by Mercutio in the finals. His victory doesn't improve Mercutio's mood though. Romeo and Juliet spend the day with sexual adventures. Tybalt discovers that Juliet has blocked him on twitter.
Juliet persuades Laurence to build a love shack for her and Romeo. Although Jess thinks this romance is moving way too fast Laurence agrees. Juliet surprises Romeo with the den and they discover the Laurence is qualified to perform humanist weddings. They arrange a mock wedding on Twitter where Jess ignores the request to perform as a witness.
Mercutio discovers that somebody has hacked his Twitter account and even apologized to Tybalt who on the other hand doesn't even notice because he is angry about last nights result and the quality of dope Laurence has given him. He confronts Laurence only to be surprised by Jess who wanted to confide with Laurence about the last events. She finds him giving drugs to Tybalt instead and is outrageous. The Montague side of the events ten years ago are uncovered also revealing that Mrs. Capulet was in love with Montague Sr.. Romeo and Juliet sneak off to a hotel that night without telling anybody.
Fourth Week
Juliet tells Jess that she is not moving to AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and also married Romeo at the registry office yesterday – no joke. Laurence tells Tybalt that Romeo and Juliet have been meeting up at the coffee shop and Mercutio finds out about Juliet being Romeo's mystery girl. As a result Tybalt is out for Romeo's blood and Mercutio wants to beat up some Capulets at the night's football game. Romeo tries to calm everybody down, he wants no fight at all.
Everybody goes to the football match and Jess loses track of Tybalt after having been separated due to crowd troubles. Romeo gets lost too. Nobody knows what's going on. Mercutio finally shows up in an ambulance and later at the hospital. After joking around he curses all the Capulets and Montagues and dies.
The next day Romeo is laying low and tweets Mercutio with no reply. He also tweets Juliet that he is safe but not at Laurence's. As the day goes on his tweets to Mercutio grow more anxious. In the meanwhile news of Tybalt's death reach the Capulet house along with rumors that Romeo was the one who killed him. Juliet does not believe these accusations and is terrified that Romeo might be dead too. She also threatens to cut her wrists. Jess, who is worried about her hysteric reactions, agrees to meet up with Laurence, who still tweets that Tybalt's death was an accident, to sort things out.
Romeo realizes that Mercutio is dead and Juliet finally believes him being alive. Jess sneaks Juliet out of the house and brings her to Laurence's where Romeo has been hiding ever since. They decide that it is the best decision to get Romeo out of the country and that Juliet should not go with him.
Romeo is laying low in an unspecified European country and finds out that Laurence had let his mouth run away with him. Juliet finds out that Romeo really killed Tybalt. She confronts Romeo on Twitter but nothing is resolved.
Juliet reads the tweets of the night of Tybalt's death and realizes that he has been to blame. She apologizes to Romeo and announces herself as Mrs Montague. She begs Jess to let her move in rather than to having to move to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Mr. Capulet storms off to Laurence's coffee shop and accuses him of helping his daughter to run away from home.
Jess persuades Juliet to go home with her and after Laurence's refusal to send him money Romeo gets some money together and returns to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Fifth Week
Juliet is trying to attend Mercutio's funeral but is stopped by her father who also tried to hit her after finding out about the wedding between her and Romeo. Jess pulls her father away and escapes to her apartment in despair. Romeo tells Juliet he is making his way back to her and posted a poem about his dead friend.Juliet is said to move to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
with her stepmother on Wednesday, no arguments. Jess is still disappointed about her father and keeps the distance to the family. Laurence tries to help Juliet and gets chased away. After that he leaves some strange messages on his website about leaving the milk in his apartment while he was away. Romeo is beseeching Juliet not to go and constantly tries to get in touch with Laurence. After that he switches his phone off.
Juliet announces that she is getting settled with the idea of moving to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. Jess is pleased to hear that and concentrates on her career plans. Laurence also encourages Juliet but also made some tweets about junction 10 which turns out to be a hotel he settles in later reminding Romeo of their meeting. Romeo's phone is still switched off. Juliet sneaks off to Laurence's apartment and sent a series of twitpics of the 'milk' she was drinking and tweets about her future together with Romeo. After that she passes out.
Romeo turns on his phone finally and understands Juliet's tweets as suicide notes only to be assured by her seemingly dead body in Laurence's apartment. He takes some pills washed down with whiskey. Jess and Laurence tuned in too late to stop him. Juliet awakes with Romeo's dead body beside her. She ignores Jess's tweets and kills herself by cutting her wrists. Jess rushes off to Laurence's apartment and finds the two dead bodies. Laurence, too afraid to come home, drives around and is depressed about the consequences of his plan. Jess begs him to come back to help her understand the disaster.
Jess wakes up with a hangover and is supported by many of her followers on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. Laurence finally decides to come home and advices a young hitchhiker on the way to return home. Jess notices a picture in the middle of the town, it is a painting of her mother by Montague with a note saying 'sorry'. Then a final message from Tybalt's account appears for her: I'm so sorry. Come home. Dad x.
Romeo Montague
Romeo is a 19 year old who takes every day as it comes. He wants to make the best out of everything he does and is enjoying his life at home as an only child. After passing all of his final exams at school he decided to take a year off and works part-time at a card-board factory. He doesn't seem to have many close friends besides Mercutio but is enjoying the moments with him to the fullest. He seems very quiet at first but is definitely an eye-catcher. Although Montague Sr. never told him too he dislikes the Capulets for what they did to his family.Mercutio
He is not the handsomest 19 year old but one of the most charming. He uses this talent to seduce girls and to get away with most of the things he does but if this doesn't work out he sure knows how to use his fists. He is an only child and his parents live in south France since he turned 18. They bought him an apartment in the city and he gets a decent allowance every month. After school he decided to take a year off like Romeo and spends most of the time with him and the Montagues. He is very loyal to them and wishes to be part of the family.Juliet Capulet
A shy gentle 15 year old girly girl who likes to stay at home and hang out with her sister Jess who is also her best friend. She is very innocent and seems to have little experience with anything to do with the real world. She likes singing and making music on her guitar other than that she is a typical teen and enjoys TwilightTwilight
Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise or between sunset and dusk, during which sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not directly visible because it is below...
and Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...
. Her father is very strict and she is not allowed very much but her personality is set to obey most of the time and she enjoys being at home in her room. She doesn't seem to be very popular and doesn't have so many friends besides her sister. As she was still too young to know about the events going on the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues seems strange to her.
Jess Capulet
She is a 23 year old trainee solicitor at a corporate law firm. She is very driven and hardworking. She always has a project going on and is always taking on extra work. Currently she is training for the London marathonLondon Marathon
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition, which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money,...
. Since their mother died she has been the mother for her younger siblings that's why they nicknamed her 'nurse'. She lives on her own and has a small apartment in a nearby town. She tries to keep the family together and keeps close contact to her sister and dad and her brother too. As the oldest she has the most memories of their mother and still blames Montague Sr. for her death.
Tybalt Capulet
At the age of seven his mother died, his dad remarried hastily and he was shipped off to boarding school. He has been angry at everybody in his family and also at life ever since. But most of all he is angry at Montague Sr. who he thinks is to blame for all this mess. Without him the accident would have never happened and his mother would still be alive. Other than that he portrays this anger within his behavior in school, where he is about to be expelled, and with everybody else in his way. The only place he seems to calm down is at Laurence's coffee shop. Laurence seems like a mentor to him but he also provides him with dope. If it wasn't for that Tybalt would have nowhere to go.Laurence Friar
He is the 38 year old coffee/internet shop owner in town. He tries to do good and offers his help to the teenagers in town but he is also a local drug dealer and sells dope to them. He tries to help the community by supporting the young people and giving them a safe haven with his coffee shop to hang out and have fun. He grew up in this town and knows how it is to live in the rural area, he tries to give them a place to stay other than hanging out in the streets. He also supports the local disabled group and arranges gatherings for the local youth like his ping pong tournament. Back in the days he used to be friends with Montague Sr. until the accident. Nowadays he tries to loosen the tension between the two families and helps the young couple to sort things out.Realization/Form
The actors all performed on TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, the internet platform, using small comments with 140 characters (tweets) to tell their followers what they were up to. Although other internet platforms, Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Xboxlive, Audioboo
AudioBoo
AudioBoo is a website which allows users to post and share sound files. AudioBoo was developed by UK-based and partially funded by Channel 4 and was launched in March 2009.-Technology:...
, Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and Wordpress
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...
, were used too Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
as the main media was even more useful to perform as the people who were interested in seeing this event could just follow the characters or even just their favorite one. The actors improvised around a prepared story grid and were free to interpret the events in their own way using their own words. The feature that came out of this was a live story-telling situation which could definitely also be based on real events. Followers who tuned in later could have always had the impression they're following somebody's real life story. This resembles Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
'War of the Worlds' being read on the radio back in the days. The result was the same. The other media represented, such as Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, were used to simply support the tweets in a more striking way. Juliets video posts on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
had the function of showing her as a real person with a real voice and also to simply describe her character and her environment. The fact that Romeo was really found playing Call of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
on Xboxlive made the realness of the character even more profound as you could actually join him in his game. The variety of the media usage made it easier for the followers to connect to the characters and certainly displayed the variety of streams used by the youth of the 21st century. This made it possible to take the story of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
to modern times and to get the younger generation more interested in Shakespearean Literature.
Plot
The feud based upon a car accident is seen to be pretty washed up especially as there are so many actual events you can copy from: christianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s against muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s against hindus, people part of different countries fighting each other, e.g. people from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
don't want British sons in-law, black against white or even people with different political backgrounds. The hatred portrayed in the play does not seem to be so intense as it is liked to be.
Characters
Gender and age stereotyping is one of the most criticized topics in here. As for the boys usually posted pictures of female body parts, tweeted about last nights sexual adventures, were always into fistfights and used drugs, the girls, for example Juliet, were covered in hearts, cried,sobbed and sang a lot and relieved their tension on shopping sprees. The characters were said to be based upon today's generation but the characters were far too shallow to have portrayed all the shades of today's youth especially when it comes to their age. Juliet's version of a16 year old is full of controversial aspects as on the one hand she seems to be very girly and young character showing us her room with all the hearts and Robert PattinsonRobert Pattinson
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...
posters but on the other hand she seems like a sexual experienced mid twenty who likes to share details about her sex life publicly. Based upon these statements the characterization of the play seems very unstable and not well-thought-out at all.
Realization/Form
Probably one of the biggest criticism point besides the next one. The use of TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
was certainly a good idea but the conversion needs to be more thought-out. The idea of a live story-telling was easy at the beginning of the play as the events were not so dramatic. The people could still follow it as a live-stream of somebody's real life, but when the story developed more and more edges it became harder for the followers to see the realism within the play. Hannah Nicklin, one of the main critics, posted on her blog the comment: “show, don't tell.”and she's right. Some events should have been posted in a more dramatic way, like Romeo's and Tybalt's first fight. The number of videos showing guys knocking each other out is huge, so why not follow the trend? The variety of internet media used was already good but could have been better and more broader. The way of directly telling people about their feelings or events seems to wear out from time to time and 'show, don't tell' seems a good way to prevent it. Another example for this would be Romeo's and Juliet's deaths. The realism gets totally lost as it seems pretty hard to believe that either one of them would post their death/suicide of twitter. Basically the whole area of feelings is hard to portray within such a large media as the internet. The question whether or not this is possible or even appropriate is not answered by any of the critics.
Language
The biggest critique mentioned on the web. The aim of the play was to bring Shakespeare closer to today's generation and also to transfer it into today's language. This aim was fulfilled in the beginning of the play but towards the end, the same trend as above, when the story gets more dramatic, the language falls into medieval English which is not really logical. The aim to put all of the story and the emotions coming along with it into a 140 character tweet is very high and the lack of experience within this new genre was certainly not very helpful to the actors. Although the challenge of the task was respected by all the critics the result of their comments were all the same – it could have been done better.External links
- http://www.suchtweetsorrow.com
- http://www.rsc.org.uk
- http://www.wearemudlark.com/
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8615432.stm
- http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2010/04/025800.htm
- http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/such-tweet-sorrow-shakespeare-gets-the-social-media-treatment/
- http://www.hannahnicklin.com/2010/04/such-tweet-sorrow-a-blog-post-in-two-acts/
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Such-Tweet-Sorrow-Fan-Page/115759225110381
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuODHuWkFDY
Videos
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSEuj3fNkMk
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7UCIthTsgQ&feature=related
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Z8qY_0EPw&feature=related
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBN6oCp4GeM&feature=related