The Capulets and Montagues

Paul Maher will be directing his own translation of ‘The Capulet’s and Montague’s or Romeo and Juliet: The Comedy’.
The play will be staged in the Hall of Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square from 18 to 21 April this year in a cabaret style production with live music and dance.

This production is particularly exciting because

•   Lope de Vega (1564-1635) is Spain’s foremost playwright and a contemporary of Shakespeare.  Though virtually unknown in the English speaking world he is hugely respected among Spanish speakers and is credited with writing over 1,500 plays in his lifetime, many of them classics of world theatre.  Some people may remember the evening in 2015 when Paul introduced Lope’s work to the society

•   The play was written around 1603 by Spain’s foremost playwright Lope de Vega, a contemporary of Shakespeare. While both playwrights, writing at the same time used the same sources for their plays, there is no evidence that either was aware of the other’s work.

•   There are many similarities in the plots and, of course, significant differences, not least of which is the fact Lope created a comedy from the material while Shakespeare created a tragedy.

•   There is a broad correlation between scenes in both plays: a party scene in which the lovers fall in love at first sight, a fight scene and killing after which the male protagonist is sent into exile, a farewell scene in the garden between the lovers, a sleeping draught that induces a death-like state in the female protagonist, and a scene in a crypt.

•   This is an English version produced especially for the Shakes.

•   This may be the first production in Ireland of a play by Lope de Vega.  It is certainly the first in living memory

•   By attending the show get the opportunity to evaluate how two masters of world theatre shaped brilliant but very different plays from the same source material.

Check out the interview with the Director – Paul Maher – HERE