Pocket Play Review: Romeo and Juliet at Southwest Shakespeare

Author Julie Hammonds is on a quest to complete Shakespeare’s canon in calendar year 2025. In these pocket play reviews, she’ll record brief impressions of each show she sees.

• The Play: Romeo and Juliet
• The Company: Southwest Shakespeare
• Run Dates: February 8–23, 2025
• The Peter Dunmore Award for passion in performance goes to Israel Campos as Romeo

Pocket Play Review: It can sometimes seem like Romeo and Juliet is relevant only to those for whom young love and romance are life’s primary concerns. Southwest Shakespeare proved that this play can be performed in a way that connects the story with the life experiences of audience members of any age.

Setting their production in Gujarat, India, during the time of partition when Pakistan was created brought the play’s theme of familial strife to the forefront. This brilliant choice was felt in everything from costumes to sound design to dance choreography.

We’re living through a time of polarization in the U.S., when even old neighbors can seem like enemies. Watching Shakespeare’s characters experience a similarly divisive period in recent history gave weight and relevance to the battles between the Capulets and Montagues. Wordless scenes between two shopkeepers were added at the beginning and end of the play, sending a message of hope to the audience.

In sum: With their production of Romeo and Juliet, Southwest Shakespeare proved that if you choose your setting wisely and commit to it wholly, you can make this play feel relevant to our lives today.