Review of Virus Theater "Romeo and Juliet"

RECOMMENDED by Reviewer Lynn Janes, who provided the article, photos and video at the bottom

Virus Theater presents Romeo and Juliet

By Lynn Janes

The Virus Theater continues to run the production of "Romeo and Juliet." The first showing took place January 27, 2023, and runs until February 12, 2023. The production is being held at the El Sol Theater downtown with all the charm of many years ago minus the original historic theater seats.

The dream of this production started several years ago and was to open in 2020. Since it could not open then it has finally come to fruition. The recruitment started in the fall of 2022. The theater recruited teenagers 14-18 to be part of the performance, design, and vision for the production.

They said production had been a challenge to bring a vision of 1980 / Renaissance mash up. The production used all the range of emotions that Shakespeare wrote for Romeo and Juliet, sorrow, pain, laughter, death, love, hate and more. They used the language of traditional Shakespeare with some added surprises. The whole production had been well thought out and very well acted for a small theater. The costumes and set were inventive, and all very different. Instead of everything happening on the main stage they created sets at different levels and to the sides that kept the audience engaged. During set changes and throughout the production they played popular '80s music everyone will remember. Although it lasted an hour and forty-five minutes you never would notice or get bored.

This author totally recommends taking the time to see this surprisingly fun and well-done production. It ended with a full room standing ovation.

You can get all the information at virustheater.com . They still have eight more showings, so don't miss it.