Watch Romeo & Juliet The Tragic Lovers

Romeo & Juliet - The Tragic Lovers, offers insight, commentary and staged performances of Shakespeare's famous tragedy of star-crossed lovers. As a companion to the literary interpretation, actual dramatic scenes filmed in Verona, Italy are used as Shakespeare had intended in his original play. Scholar and host, James Bride, introduces factual information about Shakespeare's play by referencing a digitally enhanced version of the Prologue. Gary Taylor, Editor of the Oxford Editions of Shakespeare's Complete Works, offers an engaging dialogue about the historical background of exotic Verona, use of boy actors, staging challenges and 16th Century sacred and secular attitudes that influenced the writing of the play. Additionally, Judith Annozine covers the humor in this play providing insight into the characters and role of the Nurse and Mercutio in advancing the action. ABOUT THE PLAY: Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about two teenage 'star-crossed' lovers whose untimely deaths reunite their feuding families. An emotional powerhouse, this adaptation of the original story for the stage transports the audience to another time and place, 16th Century Verona, using Shakespeare's text and Elizabethan costumes and staging to enhance the drama. The civil strife between the Montague and Capulet houses provide the backdrop for the love story and tragic death of Romeo and Juliet, all of which take place within a condensed period in dramatic time of just four and one half days. Shakespeare's command of dramatic structure is evidenced by his juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy to heighten tension and expansion of minor characters - the Nurse, Friar Laurence, Mercutio and Tybalt, as well as sub-plots to embellish the story. The Tragic Lovers is an epic romance of tragic proportions that contains some of the most compelling and romantic verse ever written set against the erupting violence of feuding families