Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night


Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night

Two of Shakespeare's best-loved plays will light up Sport for Jove's Summer Season. Sport for Jove's Artistic Director Damien Ryan will direct a tumultuous and youthful Romeo & Juliet and Christopher Stollery will direct a side-splitting take on the riotous Twelfth Night filled with music and mayhem.

The existential crisis facing our world today, the product of a lack of practical leadership from our earth's elders, has triggered a deafening chorus of 'How dare you!', screamed from the heart of our planet's youth. And it's not just about climate issues. What can children teach us in their struggle to be heard?

This furiously energetic new production of Romeo & Juliet is characterised by a true vision of today's youth - the rarely seen innovation of actual teenagers playing the play's children –all aged 14-18, and surrounded by an extraordinary cast of experienced players, gives this production an authenticity and honest rawness, danger and the genuine awkwardness of youth.

"This production takes on the spirit of a filthy Italian opera, lead with an original acapella score," said Ryan. "You will be transported to a backcountry Verona, a profoundly insular town, staring out at the future a moral pollution at its heart. Only its children's courage to express themselves will bring change."

The twelfth night is the last day of the Christmas cycle, a night of madness where the world turns upside down, where grief and joy and laughter and tears are all one. When mere mortals have the power to choose who they are, what they believe in and who they may love.

In the chaos of this disruption, people begin to feel things they are not supposed to feel and behave in totally unexpected ways. The puritan dances in yellow stockings, the Duke falls in love with his pageboy and so does the Lady Olivia. Moral rectitude is upended as the puritanical Malvolio goes head to head with Sir Andrew and his band of permissive louts.

Desire, disguise and revelation are a heady mix as this Twelfth Night subverts Shakespeare's play on gender by casting women as Malvolio and Sebastian, retaining some of the original humour and confusion from the cross-casting of Shakespeare's day.

Sport for Jove's Summer Season has been a glorious festive season treat for our audience for ten years. Gathering as a community outdoors each summer to delight in the comedies and weep over the tragedies has become a beloved annual tradition. In this eleventh festival we are thrilled to present two such firm favourites of Shakespeare's repertoire in faithful but innovative ways. See you under the stars!

Bella Vista Farm
21-30 December 2019
Norwest Blvd & Elizabeth MacArthur Drive, Bella Vista
(Romeo & Juliet only)

Leura Everglades
11-26 January 2020
37 Everglades Ave, Leura

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