BB: Romeo and Juliet, the Speeches

artwork - Stephanie E.M. Coleman — artwork – Stephanie E.M. Coleman

(Podcast recorded and produced by Daniel J. Rowe, blog written and edited by Eric Jean)

Welcome Brawlers! Now that we all know how Romeo and Juliet ends, let’s wrap it up with out Speeches podcast!

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For this podcast, we figured that all of you in Bard Brawl nation were already familiar with many of the famous speeches from R&J so we’ve steered conspicuously clear of “Queen Mab”‘s and “yonder window”‘s to give you a selection entirely chosen to prove our theories right.

Enjoy!

“Bid a sick man in sadness make his will” Act I, scene 1
Speakers: Romeo, Benvolio
Here’s Romeo, pouring his heart out to his buddy Benvolio about the love of his life, Rosaline. Romeo loves a woman. Fact. Rosaline told Romeo that she has sworn to live chaste rather than give in to his advances. Fact. Benvolio thinks Romeo is totally overreacting about this whole Rosaline business. Fact. Rosaline is just feeding Romeo that line to get rid of him? Probably.

“Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift” Act II, scene 3
Speakers: Friar Lawrence, Romeo
After pouring his heart out to Benvolio about how he’ll never get over Rosaline, here’s Romeo in his fits of passion for Juliet. Sounds like Friar Lawrence heard all of Romeo’s lines before because he calls Romeo on it. The friar agrees to help him out but doesn’t think Romeo will make much of a husband. It’s a good thing Shakespeare never wrote in a third teenage girl into the play…

“Jesu, what haste? can you not stay awhile?” Act II, scene 5
Speakers: Juliet, Nurse
After seeing how Romeo handles his bouts of love, here’s Juliet who’s been waiting impatiently for her nurse to arrive with a status update about Romeo. The nurse is trying to catch her breath. Juliet is grilling her to get all of the details of the plan to run off and get married with her Romeo. God these two deserve one another.

“Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as” Act III, scene 1
Speakers: Mercutio, Benvolio
Benvolio, who likes to think he’s a level-headed peacemaker, and Mercutio, who knows very we that he isn’t, are arguing about which one of them has the shortest temper. Where are they? Standing in the middle of the street, in the hot sun, moments before Tybalt some Capulets come around the corner. Sounds like some peace is about to be made!

“Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!” Act V, scene 2
Speakers: Friar Lawrence, Friar John
You’d think that if I agreed to deliver a letter for someone, I wouldn’t pay any house calls to plague victims. Well, I guess Friar John didn’t see an issue with it until he was quarantined. So much for delivering that super important letter to Romeo which, if he had received, would have totally fixed absolutely everything according to Friar Lawrence’s absolutely ludicrous plan.

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2014 comeback sonneteer of the year Kayla “no internet presence” Cross returns to the brawl with an in character rendition of sonnet 54.

If you’re in the area, check out the Manhattan Shakespeare Project‘s all female rendition of Romeo and Juliet running from the end of May to the beginning of July.

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