It’s one of the most celebrated and performed plays ever written, and it’s getting a dark, funny and modern twist in 100 Mile House.
Grades 8-9 students from Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School are busy learning their lines for upcoming performances of “Zombeo and Juliet,” a gory and comic take on Shakespeare’s great tragedy about star-crossed lovers from feuding families.
In the “Romeo and Juliet” parody, written by Kathy Martin and Phil Nohl, the Houses of Montague and Capulet have been replaced with the Montgomerys, a family of zombies, and the Decapitates, zombie hunters.
“When Juliet’s cousin Ty kills Romeo, Romeo becomes a zombie, making the Montgomery family proud,” reads a description of the play.
“Soon after at the Decapitates’ costume party, Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love, but poor Juliet Decapitate doesn’t know her love is one of her undead adversaries.”
The performances go from May 21 to 23 at 7 p.m. in the 100 Mile House Junior Secondary School gymnasium.
As well as performing, the theatre students are working all the technical aspects of the production.
Tickets are $7 and available at Donex Pharmacy and Didi’s Boutique in 100 Mile House, and at the door during performance evenings.
A press release prepared for the production by director Lisa Dugaro states: “Although this is an all ages’ comedy, audience members should know that there are jokes about death, mention of/warning about drug use, and cartoonish violence in the play.”
