Pretty upsetting that in this day and age “Romeo and Juliet set in Nazi Germany” is something a U.K. theatre troupe has deemed acceptable to put onstage.
What makes it even worse is the decision to make the Montagues, generally viewed as the more reasonable and less archaic family of the two, fucking Nazis. Romeo is Hitler’s Youth. Juliet is a Jewish girl. Juliet, a child who is offered up as a child-bride to a much older man for financial benefit, is being portrayed as Jewish.
And that’s before you even touch the new subtext of Romeo killing Tybalt. There is no way to depict Tybalt’s death as a terrible accident when the character killing him is a Nazi and Tybalt is Jewish.
I’m disgusted. I hope they reconsider this disgusting production.
What people don’t get about ‘Romeo and Juliet’ when they try to get “creative” with adaptations is that the Montagues and Capulets were two families “alike in dignity”. Neither family has inherent privilege over the other, and their fued is irrational and fueled only by personal spites.
Making an adaptation of the play where one family is in a place of immense privilege and oppressive power just doesn’t work and isn’t what the play was originally about.
Aside from the obvious antisemitism, making ‘Romeo and Juliet’ about anything other than two petty wealthy families just isn’t true to the story and shows a real lack of understanding of the play.
Every time someone tries to make it about race relations or genocide or literally any really awful moment in history and present times, they’re not actually making a creative adaptation and only being antisemitic, racist, etc etc.
I swear, every single year someone comes up with a new “nazi falls in love with Jewish girl” story, and they’re all terrible, and no-one ever learns.