Private Romeo is about to add to the list of modern Romeo and Juliet retellings. This time the story takes place in a boy’s military academy, and takes the form of, what was it that Bardfilm told us to call it, a meta play? Where the plot has them acting out Romeo and Juliet the play, while simultaneously their lives mirror the story?
If “boys military academy” didn’t give it away for you, I’ll say it up front – this is a gay version of the story – or is it homosexual? I’m not sure what the preferred was is to say that, and I’m copying “gay Romeo and Juliet” right from their homepage so I’m assuming it’s ok. I mentioned Were The World Mine, a gay version of Midsummer, to the creators of the movie who swear to me that theirs is nothing like that.
Judge for yourself, there’s a very well-produced trailer on the site. I like the way they mix up the verse with the story, and am very very pleasantly surprised to see Queen Mab playing a big role. What I can’t figure out from the trailer, though, and maybe this is deliberate – where is the “two households” bit? All I see is boys at a military academy. So, what, is it two different schools? Two different grade levels? I honestly have no idea, I can’t tell which is a Capulet and which is Montague. Is this just a case of the gay gentlemen trying to survive in a world of straights?
Take Juliet out of the picture for a moment, an R&J is one heck of a male bonding story. You’ve got best friends goofing around, you’ve got enemies, you’ve got fights, you’ve got watching each other’s back, you’ve got loyalty. If you want to make a bunch of that take place on a basketball court, why not? Of course, somebody has to play the Juliet role. I think that how they pull that off will be crucial to the success of the storytelling. This is not going to be a case where they name one of the boys Julian or something like that and we’re supposed to figure it out — Juliet is called, by name, multiple times in the trailer. So somebody’s playing that role, as that role.
Now, I wonder if their soundtrack will be as killer as Were The World Mine? 🙂

We’re always on the lookout for good Shakespeare games, so here’s a simple online Jeopardy game specifically about Romeo and Juliet Act One, or Act Two. It’s a shame they didn’t do all five acts :).
The game appears to run on the honor system — pick a category and an amount, then read the question. You can then ask to reveal the correct answer, and it’s up to you whether you think you got it. If so, score yourself some points. Doing this, and then hitting continue, will blank that particular square from the board and require that you pick another one.
Cute idea. I could see it having some use in a classroom, perhaps as a study guide. Really, though, it’s just a fancy way to do flashcards.

There’s plenty more to be found at Jeopardy Labs.

I always read lists like this. Always. Because you knew never know if it’s going to be a rehash of all the standards we’ve seen before, or if there’s going to be maybe 1 that’s new to me — or, like this list, be almost entirely new content!
We’re talking about adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, by the way. And I can honestly say that of the 15, I had no idea that about 10 of them were Romeo and Juliet stories. That doesn’t mean I’m interested in going to hunt them all down, of course (some are even foreign films), but it’s nice to know there are journalists out there who are still actually researching their stories and not just churning out the cut and paste jobs for Valentine’s Day.
Bonus – #12 on the list is local favorite Sealed With a Kiss, which the reviewer calls, “one of the modern Romeo & Juliet adaptations that most respects the original’s text” and “almost a retelling more than a revision.”
#13 of course is Gnomeo (why else would they be publishing such a list?) and I agree with the summary here, as well:

Nor does it prevent them from arrogantly boasting to their audience that their film, Gnomeo & Juliet, has a more exciting opening than the original play, and a better, happier ending. Apparently gnomes know as little about humility as they do about tragedy.