Shakespeare in the Park’s 2023 ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the Delacorte Theater

The Public Theater’s 2023 production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Saheem Ali, staged the classic tragedy against the backdrop of a U.S.-Mexico border wall at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Running from June 2 to June 28, 2023, the production utilized a bilingual script incorporating Spanish translations by Alfredo Michel Modenessi to frame the conflict between the Capulets and the Montagues through the lens of national and cultural division.

Conceptualizing the Border Setting

Saheem Ali’s staging transformed the Delacorte stage into a desert landscape, featuring a physical representation of a border wall. According to *The New York Times*, the production aimed to reflect contemporary geopolitical tensions by placing the Capulet and Montague families on opposite sides of a steel fence. Set designer Maruti Evans included symbolic elements such as 18-foot-tall statues of the Virgin Mary and a skeleton to evoke the imagery of the southern border. While the production sought to modernize the play’s themes of tribalism, critics noted that the execution often left the narrative’s political metaphors feeling disconnected from the original text’s progression.

The Use of Bilingual Text

A central feature of this production was the integration of a bilingual script. Following his work on the 2021 audio adaptation Romeo y Julieta, Ali instructed the cast to perform with a linguistic divide: the Capulets spoke primarily in English, while the Montagues utilized Spanish.

The production did not provide supertitles for the Spanish dialogue. As noted by *The New Yorker*, the familiarity of Shakespeare’s narrative allowed audiences to follow the plot despite the language barrier. This approach intended to emphasize the cultural distance between the two houses, with characters like Juliet, played by Ra’mya Latiah Aikens, bridging the divide by code-switching during her interactions with Romeo, portrayed by Daniel Bravo Hernández.

Staging and Ensemble Challenges

The production faced significant hurdles in maintaining dramatic cohesion. The *New York Theater* reported that the directorial choices regarding the ensemble often undermined the tension essential to the play’s climax. Despite a strong performance by Deirdre O’Connell as the Nurse, the production struggled with the staging of the play’s violent conflicts.

Observers pointed to the following inconsistencies in the production’s design:

• Costume Choices: The apothecary was dressed in traditional Catholic vestments, which conflicted with the character’s scripted description as living in poverty.
• Action Sequences: The ensemble, meant to represent warring factions, often remained static during scenes that were textually described as brawls.
• Editing Decisions: Key emotional beats, including the traditional use of the dagger in the final scene, were omitted or altered, which some critics argued diluted the impact of the tragedy.

Audience Engagement and Final Performances

In a departure from traditional Shakespearean performance, the production concluded with an interactive element. Following the final scene, the actor playing Friar Lawrence, Francis Jue, broke character to officiate a wedding or vow renewal for a pre-selected couple from the audience. This nightly ritual was designed to provide a communal, optimistic conclusion to the otherwise grim events of the play.

The production marked one of several collaborations between Ali and the Public Theater, following his previous work on Merry Wives (2021) and Twelfth Night (2022). While the 2023 Romeo and Juliet received recognition for its ambitious visual concept, it was frequently cited in reviews as an example of the challenges inherent in balancing high-concept political staging with the structural requirements of classical theater.