One of the best things about living in Dublin is the opportunity if offers you to get your culture freak on by going to the theatre. I’ve become something of an addict in the one year that I’ve lived here and I must have seen a good 3-4 plays in that time. Despite having seen as many in the last 12 months as the combined population of Limerick I don’t feel I could have called myself an authority on the matter until I had seen a Shakespearean play. This I duly did last night when I had the good fortune to catch the excellent production of Romeo and Juliet which was beginning its run in the Abbey.

Checking the production’s bebo page in advance (here) informed that this was “a gritty contemporary version of one of the world’s most famous love stories.” I wasn’t sure exactly what this meant but it set alarm bells ringing nonetheless as i feared it would disqualify it and thus delay my graduation to “theater buff”. After much soul searching I decided that Shakespeare was Shakespeare and I braced myself for Verona to be replaced by Finglas. Perversely I was curious to know what my reaction to hearing “Romeo, Romeo, where de bleedin’ hell are ya Romeo?” would be.

In the end my fears proved unfounded and we were treated to an excellent production of Shakespeare’s most famous Hollywood movie, with fine performances from all the cast. For the first two acts the production was essentially by the book with merely the costumes and music used suggesting the contemporary setting threatened by the Bebo page. However in act 3 things changed and we took a trip to left field.

The production ran for nearly 3 hours and despite being impressed throughout, I must admit that the long running time took its toll and I began to feel quiet drowsy midway through the final act. It is to the directors credit that at precisely this moment the production confidently, but curiously, departed from the traditional storyline and roused me from my stupor. Aliens chasing ninjas through a forest is a brave move in a Shakespearean play and I must admit that I was baffled and dare I say lost. However at this point the alien and the ninjas united and turned their attention to me forcing me to forget my reservations at the curious twist and concentrate on merely surviving the production. I wondered how my fellow audience members would react but as I defeated the last of the ninjas the crowd stood and clapped in unison whilst the cast bowed in a futile attempt to steal my kudos.

So who am I to argue? It wasn’t textbook Shakespeare, but the audience loved it and in the end isn’t that what matters?