Nature's Gods Have Spoken

I had the pleasure of attending the adapted Romeo & Juliet at the Curio Theater, which is a few blocks from my home. The gender of Romeo was changed to females. At this moment in History, this is to tie a major human rights issue to one of the main anchors of Western Civilization --the right of same-sex couples to marry. They tied on to the anchor, and the rope did not break.

Normally, if even one word of a Shakespeare play is changed, the people involved are ruined in theater, laughed out of town. This, on the contrary, is an amazing success. Romeo was not a female actor in a male role, nor a female character disguised as a man. Romeo was a female actor in a female role. Otherwise it was the same, super-familiar play.

Before Romeo & Juliet was presented over 400 years ago, the stock tale of star-crossed lovers in Western Literature was Pyramus and Thisbe. Ever since, R & J cover the base. The play is that powerful.

I felt that last night's show did profound justice to this masterpiece and is one sign of the current sea-change in mainstream attitudes toward LGBT people.

Here we are. Nature's gods have spoken, declaring that same-sex marriage is good, decent, and right. The religious bigots who oppose this Love with their smarmy malice have been flushed down the toilet bowl of History.

Facing each other before the performance are Isa St. Clair (Juliet, red hair) & Rachel Gluck (Romeo).