Folger Theatre announced Monday the opening of its 2024-2025 season with William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by award-winning director and producer Raymond O. Caldwell, on stage at the Folger Shakespeare Library, from Oct. 1-Nov. 10.
Framed within the Folger Shakespeare Library’s timely seasonal theme of “Whose Democracy?”, an exploration of political power and civic participation, this staging situates the world’s most famous romantic tragedy in a politically fraught, slightly fictionalized version of the District.
In a nod to the current election cycle, Caldwell’s fresh interpretation of star-crossed lovers marries the “uncivil strife” of Shakespeare’s Verona and the polarized political landscape of our nation’s capital.
With the Capulets and Montagues envisioned as political rivals during a contested election season, this production delves into the politics of division and the violent consequences that arise when the systems designed to protect and guide society’s youth — familial, religious and governmental — fail catastrophically.
“As I began conceptualizing this production of Romeo and Juliet for the Folger, the nerd in me was inspired to imagine a modern Shakespearean ‘metaverse,’” said Caldwell (“Blood at the Root” at Theater Alliance and “Passing Strange” at Signature Theatre). “My brilliant team of collaborators and I are carefully crafting a universe that is both distant yet familiar to our nation’s capital in 2024. Here, we are encouraging audiences to grapple with how wealth, class, substance abuse, mass media consumption, politics, and tribalism shape our capacity for love and exacerbate violence.”
Bringing the iconic young lovers to life are Cole Taylor (Romeo) and Caro Reyes Rivera (Juliet), both making their Folger debuts. Todd Scofield (“The Merry Wives of Windsor”) and Fran Tapia (Folger Theatre debut) take on the roles of Lord and Lady Capulet, Juliet’s conflicted parents, in the throes of a hotly contested political campaign. The Montague family features Tony Nam (“Much Ado About Nothing”) as Lord Montague and Renee Elizabeth Wilson (last seen on the Folger stage this spring in “Metamorphoses”) as Lady Montague.
Tickets are available online at www.folger.edu/romeo-juliet or by calling the Folger Box Office at 202-544-7077.