They lay there, dead and bleeding, while spectators drew in sharp breaths, and later burst into applause.

A team of actors got together to stage a play in English at Patna’s Kalidas Rangalaya, on Tuesday (July 2). The troupe, ‘Theatron Rex’ staged their own version of Shakespeare’s evergreen love tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.

The play, set in Italy, revolves around the love saga of teenaged Romeo and Juliet, whose their families hate each other. Romeo and Juliet secretly marry, supported by Juliet’s nurse and Friar Lawrence, a kindly priest.

A feud in the street complicates matters, when Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, thus causing the duke to banish him from the city. Even as Romeo leaves, Juliet’s father announces her engagement to Paris, a wealthy young man. The circumstances are tense, her father will not listen to a word, it is a matter of family honour. So Juliet goes to the priest in search of a solution, and receives a potion that would induce a death-like trance for a day. The priest plans to send a message to Romeo, so he can visit the graveyard that night and escape with Juliet. However, Romeo doesn’t get the message. he receives news of Juliet’s death and rushes grieving to the cemetery, poison in hand. Romeo consumes the poison and dies near the Juliet’s grave. Juliet wakes up and sees Romeo’s corpse besides her. She pulls out the dagger from Romeo’s waist and stabs herself.

The play was directed by a young Ranjan Kumar , a postgraduate in English literature,who also played the part of Romeo, the Romantic lead. He says that it was his dream to stage this play because of its message that love is greater than animosity.

The show starred Ranjan Kumar, Akanksha Priya, Shrivastava, Ravi Anand, Mritunjay Kumar, Renu Sinha, Priya Shah, VandanaVerma, Mohan Kumar Jha, Ravi Kaushik and more.  

With inputs from Ayush Kumar Dhan, BMC III year, St Xavier’s College.

  Patna, Theatre