Yet beneath the accumulated layers hides a black sun of political decadence and family hatreds, rich in complex and insular characters, far removed from the romantic reading to which it has been reduced. “The collective imagination concerning the repertoire fascinates me”, comments Éric Ruf. In attempting to understand the reasons for the play’s romantic image, he discovered “a sort of ghost play, a myth so present in people’s minds that it has become self-perpetuating and centred on itself”. Indeed, this tragedy that contains some delectable moments of comedy is a play of contrasts, depicting the naivety of lovelorn teenagers, whose fervent love stems from a premonition of their fate, and the programmed violence of the Montagues and Capulets that is bloodying Verona, both families driven by an ancestral grudge whose very meaning escapes them.
Situating the action under the blazing sun of southern Italy, a part of the world where tempers easily flare, a poor Italy where dilapidated walls bear witness to a lost grandeur and where irrational fears and popular beliefs remain strong, the director unleashes the extraordinary profusion of Shakespeare’s language in all its roughness, luxuriance and humour. It is very much the author of both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth that we find here.

Staging and sets: Éric Ruf
Costumes: Christian Lacroix
Lights: Bertrand Couderc
Choregraphy: Glysleïn Lefever
Music: Vincent Leterme
Sounds: Jean-Luc Ristord
Collaboration: Léonidas Strapatsakis
Assistant Stage manager: Alison Hornus
Make-up: Carole Anquetil
Assistant Scenography: Dominique Schmitt
Student-Stage manager: Adrien Dupuis-Hepner
Student-Scenographer: Julie Camus
Student-Costumier: Sophie Grosjean