''Radio and Juliet'' is an hour long ballet setup in 2005 for the Slovenian company Ballet Maribor in Slovenia. It was directed by Romanian dancer and choreographer Edward Clug. The ballet is a rendition of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's Romeo and Juliet set music of Radiohead. Since 2005 ''Radio and Juliet'' has guested in the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Israel, Canada, United States, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Serbia and Croatia. It has also been set on the companies of Bucharest National Theater and Kiev National Opera. On 15 September 2012, the 100th performance was celebrated on the old stage of the Maribor Opera house. The ballet premiered in the United States in 2008 at the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts at the

Byham Theater The Byham Theater is a landmark building at 101 Sixth Street in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally built in 1903 as The Gayety Theater, the former vaudeville house was renovated and reopened as ...

. Noted for the ballet's choreography and simplicity, ''Radio and Juliet'' represents a modernized interpretation of Shakespeare. As stated by Edward Clug, "You could call this quite a twisted version... My intention was not to retell the story but offer the audience an experience from a different perspective."

Modernized Shakespeare

The scenes and structure of the ballet do not match the original ''Romeo and Juliet'' written by Shakespeare. However, the conflict between the Capulets and Montagues and the masquerade ball scenes are included. The ballet begins with Juliet waking up from her deathlike coma to Romeo being gone and continues through her flashbacks. The ballet also uses video effects that zoom in on specific body parts of the cast during their performance. Every scene is a recanted memory of Juliet's. The play focuses on Juliet's perspective rather than the original storyline of the conflict between families. Juliet also does not take her own life like in the original play, as Edward Clug wanted to show her perspective after choosing to live rather than kill herself once she discovers Romeo dead; instead of Romeo drinking poison after thinking Juliet has killed herself, he eats a lemon.

Major cast

* Bojana Nenadovic Otrin (cast on Premiere) and Tijuana Krizman-Hudernik as Juliet * Eugen Dobrescu (cast on Premiere) and Matjaz Marin as Romeo * Christian Guerematchi/Edward Clug as Mercutio There are four other male dancers. The outfits worn by the cast are simple, the men wear suits without shirts and Juliet wears a corset. During the masquerade ball scene, the men wear surgical masks.

Music

The entire score of the ballet are songs performed by the British rock band Radiohead. Most of the music is taken from albums OK Computer and

Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...

. The robotic voice from the album OK Computer matches the robotic choreography and is used for a solo by Juliet. The ballet uses 11 Radiohead songs including "Fitter Happier," "Bullet Proof... (I Wish I Was)," "Idioteque," "How to Disappear Completely", and "Like Spinning Plates." The songs are used to create an atmosphere. The lyrics sometimes match the scene that is taking place like "Bullet Proof... (I Wish I Was)" during Mercutio's death scene. The song lyrics reinforce the fundamental element of the love story, struggling with relationships, however, the music is more important to the story as Edward Clug says, "There are moments when the story meets the lyrics, but that was not really the point. It's the overall emotion they create in their music." The ballet includes the song "Exit Music (For a Film)" from the album OK Computer which was originally created for the 1996 film

Romeo + Juliet Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Lord Montague and his wife, Lady Montague, he secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet, through a pries ...

starring Leonardo DiCaprio and

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influenti ...

. The song appeared in the closing credits of the film but not on the soundtrack recording.

Choreography

The choreography is made up of sharp body movements. This is supposed to symbolize that love and romance have been affected by "the cold hand of mechanization." Common movements include the arching of the torso, the bending of the wrists paired with elbow motions, and stabbing motions of the feet and legs. The choreography includes twitching and jerking motions which give the appearance of robots on stage. The scenes are structured in a way so that the characters move in a series of steps. First, they begin with head movements, then the body lifts, then the characters weave in and out one another where pairing and partnered dancing takes place. Twitching continues throughout the dance. When Mercutio dies, the last thing he does is twitch. This is the same for the final scene of the dance, Juliet executes slight head twitches over Romeo's dead body.

External links

Archive footage of Ballet Maribor performing ''Radio and Juliet'' in 2009 at Jacob's PillowPROMOVIDEO of Radio and Juliet
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References