Troubling Romeo and Juliet:
Shakespeare's Tragedy of Religious
iolence in Belfast and Beyond
Crystal Brian
Quinnipiac University
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet was produced by Quinnipiac University
and staged at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre in April of 2004. In March of 2005 the
student ensemble that created the script will travel to Northern Ireland to meet with
former combatants and victims of the Troubles engaged in the difficult and vital work
of bridging age-old divides of hatred and violence. These experiences in Northern
Ireland will inform a final version of the script, to be produced at the Long Wharf
Theatre in May, 2005, as the culminating experience in a two-and-a-half-year process
of research and creation.
In the fall of 2003 a group of Quinnipiac University students, struck by the
ever-growing incidences of terrorism, violence, and religious-based conflict around
the globe, felt compelled to articulate their concerns through a collaboratively-conceived piece of theatre. Students explored faith-driven conflicts—including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East—as potential settings for a devised theatre
project. Simultaneously the ensemble read various theatrical texts, searching for a
play that could be effectively adapted to portray the seemingly endless cycle of
religious violence. Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare in the sixteenth century
during a period of intense religious strife and depicting an ancient feud which is born
anew in each succeeding generation, offered potential parallels with many contemporary global conflicts. (Indeed, Shakespeare’s tragedy has often been used as a vehicle
for exploring issues of political and cultural conflict.) Ultimately, however, students
selected one particular cycle of religious violence to furnish an organically viable
context for Shakespeare’s tragedy—that of the Troubles of Northern Ireland. As in
Shakespeare’s time, a struggle complicated by economic and social factors locates its
roots in a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant faiths. One may argue,
however, that issues of religious identification are not the true source of the conflict,
but rather furnish convenient labels masking a profound struggle for economic and
political power in the northern counties of Ireland.
“The Troubles,” the name the Northern Irish have given to the political
conflict between Republicans (predominantly Catholics) and Unionists (predominantly Protestants), has resulted in more than thirty years of unceasing violence and
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54 Crystal Brian
the deaths of almost 4000 Irish citizens—combatants, victims, Protestants, Catholics,
adults, children—all trapped in the culmination of a struggle which has stained the
country’s history for hundreds of years. Although Ireland has struggled for centuries
against domination by Great Britain, historians generally cite January 30, 1972, “Bloody
Sunday”—the day British soldiers fired upon unarmed protestors in Derry, Northern
Ireland—as the beginning of the modern “Troubles.” That infamous day became a
symbol for Northern Irishmen—Catholics and Protestants alike—of the senseless
loss and horror perpetrated in the name of religious, economic and political freedom.
The era of “Bloody Sunday” seemed an appropriate setting for our adaptation.
Drawing on the expertise of faculty in the political science and history departments, we immersed ourselves in the historical and political complexities of Northern Ireland. Students conducted extensive research, focusing on first-hand accounts
of those who have suffered during the violence which has torn the tiny country for
generations.
Gradually, as we read, discussed, watched documentaries, films, IRA recruitment videos and other source material, the group formulated primary goals. In order to
devise a piece of theatre which would powerfully affect audiences with the need to
find peaceful means for conflict resolution, the ensemble would have to find a way to
impress upon media-desensitized audiences the personal, visceral horrors of death
and destruction created by terrorist acts in the name of religious freedom. Shakespeare’s
tragedy would draw our audiences with a familiar story; our goal would be to “make
strange” that story by emphasizing the violence of angry men and women focused on
vengeance and retribution rather than the love story of Romeo and Juliet. The original
material we would devise—monologues and scenes—would be taken from true accounts, but would be fictionalized to a certain extent, the ensemble agreeing that
names and specifics should be changed out of respect for the victims of violence.
Workshops throughout the fall semester focused on selecting which stories
to dramatize and on determining where and how the original material would be woven
throughout the text of Shakespeare’s play. We extensively cut the source text, altering
certain plot points in order to make the storyline consistent with our 20th Century,
Northern Ireland setting. For example, it was necessary to eliminate Shakespeare’s
prince since there was no state authority in Northern Ireland recognized by all sides of
the conflict. The prince’s action was divided between the Friar and a character we
created based on a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer. The Friar character became a
Catholic priest whose desire to achieve peaceful conflict resolution led him to the
dangerous decision to secretly marry a Protestant (Romeo) and a Catholic (Juliet). We
began by structuring the piece as two distinct stories, Shakespeare’s tragedy and that
of the people of Northern Ireland, with scenes alternating between iambic pentameter
and original material. The workshop process eventually led to a much more integrated
script, in which Shakespeare’s characters retained their names and central storylines,
but were given “back stories” that revealed how the Northern Irish conflict affected
their actions within Shakespeare’s plot. For example, in our text Romeo is a young
Protestant seeking to avoid involvement in the violence, but pressured by his friend,
Mercutio, to become a volunteer for a Loyalist paramilitary group. Lady Capulet’s
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 55
bitterness in the scene after Tybalt’s murder is deepened by her memories of the
shooting of the innocent citizens of Derry by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday.
The dramaturgical challenge of integrating contemporary Irish language with
Elizabethan poetry was difficult and ongoing throughout the creative process. One
unifying element which smoothed stylistic shifts was the Irish accent used by actors
throughout the text. The accent imbued the contemporary material with a poetic
quality that made it seem less jarring when juxtaposed with Shakespeare’s poetry;
conversely, when spoken with an Irish brogue, the iambic pentameter assumed a
rougher, more contemporary feel. Another language-related issue was the question of
whether contemporary expressions, some of them profane, should be expurgated
from the Irish sections of the text since Shakespeare’s Elizabethan bawdy is not
perceived by contemporary audiences as profane. After consulting with natives of
Northern Ireland, the creative team ultimately decided that deleting the profanities
would seriously undermine the cultural authenticity of the Irish material. Expressions
which register as profane to American ears are commonplace in Ireland and an integral
component of the color and energy of the Irish speech.
The political and social goals of The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet were not
limited to the audience. The piece was also conceived as an experiment in embodied
learning, a methodology of teaching based on the belief that the imaginative performance process of identifying with a dramatic character and situation offers powerful
potential for learning and transformation on multiple levels. If student actors learned
to identify emotionally and intellectually with victims and combatants of the Troubles,
the world view of those students would be more deeply impacted than if they studied
Northern Ireland in a more conventional and objective context. The process of identifying with the realities of the Troubles was a challenging one for student performers
since we were not working in Northern Ireland. However, the fact that a substantial
number of the cast were of Irish heritage, some with cousins and other family members
still living in Northern Ireland, was helpful in creating a sense of community with the
Northern Irish. The planned campus visits of Gerry Adams and Betty Williams—two
important political figures of Northern Ireland—had been important factors in our
decision to devise The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet. Adams and Williams shared
experiences and feelings which helped the students engage with the material in a more
visceral and personal fashion, intensifying students’ understanding—emotional and
intellectual—of the community of northern Ireland and the pain caused by the longlived inability to resolve conflict without violence. Portions of Adams’ and Williams’
public addresses, as well as material gathered from small group meetings with the
cast, were integrated into the text.
Each ensemble member, assisted by our two production dramaturges, chose
the account which he or she would perform. Selecting the stories with which they felt
the strongest connections enabled the performers to identify intensely with the characters devised from our research; the actors imaginatively merged with victim or
perpetrator. As with our earlier work with veterans and student interviewers/performers, it was the process of internalizing and expressing the life experience of a real
person in crisis that triggered the transformation of awareness and engagement in the
performer. Through the process of devising and performing the material the student
56 Crystal Brian
participants made the conflict personal and real for themselves. The tragedy of
Shakespeare’s story became one with the litany of violence and loss expressed through
the personal tragedies of thousands of men, women and children who have lost their
lives since the Troubles began.
The back-stories of Shakespeare’s characters were devised to include many
different perspectives. Mercutio spoke as a member of one of the most violent of the
Protestant Loyalist paramilitary groups, the Shankill Butchers; Tybalt became a Catholic
IRA officer; the Nurse’s fiancée was executed by Loyalists as she watched; Juliet’s
friend, a Protestant, was beaten to death by Loyalists who mistook her for a Catholic.
Each speaker felt justified in his or her hatred of the murderer of a loved one; each felt
a need for vengeance. And each act of vengeance led to more violence. In imaginatively identifying with the horrific, and real, experiences on which the character of
Mercutio was based, the student playing the role was forced to find the humanity in
indefensible acts of violence. To understand in some measure the pain of such a
character transformed the student’s understanding of the complexities of the tragic
impasse between Loyalists and Republicans, between Protestants and Catholics
Juliet, overcome with fear at the dangerous path on which she has embarked,
remembers the story of a Protestant girl, a young mother, who was murdered brutally
because a group of Protestant Loyalists assumed she was Catholic.
What world are we livin’ in, where a mother is killed
because she asks the wrong man to dance? Where a wee
little girl listens to her mother scream while she’s beaten
to death by drunken animals who hate because it makes’
em feel like they’re men. Christ, when are we going to stop
killin’ each other because we’re afraid? (27)
The monologue, drawn from the tragic death of an innocent young woman in
Belfast in the mid-seventies, became a touchstone for the performer playing Juliet. In
reliving the senseless violence of Anne’s murder, the actor’s identification with victims of hatred everywhere was complete, the gap between fiction and reality closed
by the power of the story.
Was our experience in devising The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet a success? Although each new version of the text has more cohesively blended our disparate materials, the script has not yet evolved into a seamless whole. Some audience
members have been disturbed by the liberties taken with Shakespeare’s original story.
And we continue to experiment with a more organic blending of Irish scenes and
characters with those of Shakespeare. Still, it is clear to those of us involved in the
creation of the production that a process which can viscerally demonstrate to young
people the horror and waste of conflict and the increasing urgency for peace is one of
great value in a world torn by war, terrorism and alienation. In this sense, The Troubles
of Romeo and Juliet was a success, contributing to hunger striker Bobby Sand’s
vision for a future free of hatred and recrimination, a future when “Our best revenge
will be our children’s laughter.”
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 57
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet
By Crystal Brian, Kevin Daly and Susan Dering
Quinnipiac University
Setting: Northern Ireland, 1970s
Cast:
Romeo (Protestant, early 20s, noncombatant)
Benvolio (Romeo’s cousin, Protestant, early 20s, Loyalist Paramilitary)
Mercutio (Protestant, late 20s, member of Shankill Butchers)
Lord Montague (former Loyalist paramilitary combatant)
Lady Montague (Romeo’s mother, Protestant)
Juliet (Catholic, early 20s)
Lord Capulet (Catholic, former IRA volunteer)
Lady Capulet (Juliet’s mother, Catholic, a witness of the events of Bloody Sunday)
Catherine (Juliet’s cousin, mid 40s, Catholic)
Moira (Juliet’s friend, mid 20s, Catholic)
Mary (Catholic, early 20s, works for Capulets)
Policeman (Royal Ulster Constabulary officer)
Balthasar (Protestant, friend of Romeo’s, mid-twenties)
Paris (Catholic, late 20’s, friend of Capulet family)
The Father (Catholic priest and peace worker in the community)
Sam, Greg, Jon (group of Catholic young men intent on joining the IRA)
Adam (Protestant, early 30s, loyalist paramilitary)
(NOTE: In the production, a group of Irish musicians—bodhran, fiddle, flute and
guitar—create scene transitions as well as under-scoring the action in selected scenes.
The dance at the Capulet house is an Irish step-dance. Actors speak with the accent
of Northern Ireland, unifying the original Irish material and Shakespeare’s poetry.)
Synopsis
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, is set in
Northern Ireland during the 1970s, the most violent period of The Troubles. Romeo—
son of a Protestant family—is deeply troubled by the violence of his society. Romeo’s
cousin, Benvolio and his close friend, Mercutio, are soldiers in the armed conflict.
Mercutio is a member of an infamous Loyalist paramilitary organization, the Shankill
Butchers, a group known for its use of knives and hatchets in a series of bloody
murders in Belfast. Juliet and her family are Catholics, and Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, is an
IRA volunteer. The play follows the journey of Romeo as he is drawn, against his will,
into the seemingly unbreakable cycle of vengeance and hatred that has cost so many
Irish lives. Throughout Shakespeare’s script are woven original scenes and monologues drawn from newspaper accounts of acts of senseless violence in Northern
Ireland.
58 Crystal Brian
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet
By Crystal Brian, Kevin Daly and Susan Dering
(A group of young Irish men move down a
city street. Everywhere there are stone
police barricades. The sound of an Irish
bodhran, wild, militarisitic, is heard
faintly, growing in tempo and volume
throughout the scene)
Sam
I am tough enough.
Greg
Is that right?
Sam
I can fight.
Jon
More like you can run.
(The two older boys have a good laugh.)
Sam
If I saw a Montague…I’d cut his throat.
(He pulls out an imaginary knife and
begins acting out his deed.)
Sam
We could get in trouble.
Greg
I knew he was too scared to fight—
Sam
I’m not!
Jon
(Picking up a rock from the ground)
So if you’re not scared—
(He hands Sam the rock.)
Sam
What do you want me to do with this?
Jon
Throw it at them, fool.
Sam
But I could hit someone—
Greg
I knew he was too much of a coward. Come
on Jon, let’s go.
Greg
(They begin walking away.)
(Looking down the street)
It looks like you might have your chance.
Sam
What?
(A group of boisterous men is heard
offstage.)
Jon
Here comes some Montagues. So prove
how tough you are.
Sam
(Torn, he looks down the road, then back at
his friends)
Wait…I’ll do it.
Greg
He won’t.
Sam
I will.
(Holding the rock, he pulls his arm back and
stares down the road.)
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 59
Jon
Do it.
(Sam hurls the rock. Almost immediately a
group of boys and men appear.)
Adam
What the hell! Did you just throw a rock at
me?
(Pause. Sam doesn’t know what to do. He is
frozen with fear as he looks back to his
buddies, who have run off)
Adam
Answer me. Did you just throw a fuckin’ rock
at me?
(He attacks Sam, viciously knocking him to
the ground.)
He’s a goddamn Catholic.
(The gang advances on Sam, kicking and
punching him as he writhes on the ground. A
group of Irish women enter. Two of them
kneel by Sam, protecting him from the gang.
Others confront the men, imploring them to
stop the attack.)
Wo m a n
For God’s sake, he’s just a boy. And you’re
drunk, the lot of you. Stop it, you’ll kill him.
(The man pushes her away as BENVOLIO
enters.)
Benvolio
(Gun drawn)
Leave him be. You know not what you do.
It too meant no harm?
(He waits for a response from Benvolio,
but gets none.)
Tell me something. Would you have left
him on the street? Or would you have had
the decency to drag his body away before
his mother found it?
(The thought sends him into a rage and he
shoves Benvolio to the ground.)
You Protestant fuck!
(Lord Capulet enters.)
Capulet
Tybalt!
(Tybalt looks back just long enough for
Benvolio to raise his gun. Everyone
freezes. Lord Montague enters. )
Montague
Benvolio! Think this through. Now is not
the time.
Capulet
Will you wait until we’ve gone to sleep to
finish your deed?
Montague
Why? You lookin’ to die?
Capulet
He’s scared. Kill him Tybalt.
(The Father rushes in and throws himself
between the two.)
(Tybalt enters, with his gun drawn on
Benvolio.)
Tybalt
One move. One move and I swear to god—
Benvolio
(Stands frozen, his back to Tybalt, gun at his
side)
You don’t understand. I meant no harm.
Tybalt
And your gun?
(He looks at Sam, beaten on the ground.)
Tempers rise among Catholics and Protestants
60 Crystal Brian
Father
Are you monsters, you enemies to peace,
profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,
will you not hear? My God, you men, you
beasts, that quench the fire your pernicious
rage with purple fountains issuing from
your veins, stop this torture and from
those bloody hands. Throw your
mistemper’d weapons to the ground. The
time will come when, wreaking terror in
our streets, your lives shall pay the forfeit
of the peace.
(The men slowly gather up their weapons
and retreat. The Father goes to Sam. He
and the women help the boy up and lead
him off.)
Your father had nothing to do with what
happened today.
Romeo
No you’re wrong. My father had everything
to do with what happened today.
Benvolio
Should he sit back and wait for them to kill us
all? At least he’s not a victim.
Romeo
You’re right, he’s not a victim.
Benvolio
What’s your problem?
Montague
What on earth just happened?
Romeo
How many have you killed?
Benvolio
Adrienne came screaming that some of our
boys had gotten into a fight. I tried to
break it up but the bastard drew his gun on
me. You saw the rest.
Benvolio
Fuck off.
Montague
My son?
Benvolio
Are we to pretend they aren’t terrorizing our
neighborhoods?
Benvolio
He wasn’t there?
Montague
Good. You should stay low for awhile. I’m
sure the police will be looking for you.
Why don’t you give me that?
(Romeo enters as Benvolio hands
Montague the gun.)
Keep an eye on your cousin. He lives in a
world that doesn’t exist.
(Montague walks off as Romeo enters. The
two stop as they pass and look at one
another. Romeo says nothing. Montague
exits.)
Benvolio
Good morning, cousin.
Romeo
Is it that?
(Benvolio doesn’t answer.)
My father couldn’t do his own dirty work?
Benvolio
Romeo
At what number do they promote you?
Romeo
Women, children? Does it even matter?
Benvolio
They hide behind their hoods because they’re
too scared to look their victims in the eye.
Romeo
And why do you wear a hood? (No answer.)
You think I don’t know? You think this
whole town doesn’t know? They don’t
respect you Benvolio. They fear you. There’s
a fuckin’ difference.
Benvolio
I wasn’t given a choice.
Romeo
And I was?
Benvolio
You don’t know what it’s like. You live in
your own little world. Those bastards
murdered my cousin.
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 61
Romeo
He was my friend! And don’t you ever forget
that. I walked to school every morning with
Jimmy. And I’ve seen more death than you’ll
ever see from behind your gun, because I
open my eyes when people die. I don’t turn
and run away. I hate them more than you’ll
ever know. But death can find this place
without my help.
Benvolio
(enraged)
I was walkin’ there with you, you bastard.
Romeo
(quietly)
I know.
Benvolio
He didn’t deserve to die.
Romeo
I know.
Benvolio
(overcome with the memory)
He wasn’t just my cousin—he was my best
friend. We went to the same school. Played
rugby together. Christ, he was funny. No one
could make me laugh like Jimmy. No one
could make me as mad as he could either. But
just about the time I was ready to kill him,
he’d do somethin’ brilliant and all I could do
was laugh. I loved him. Like a brother.
We were seventeen the year he died. It was
January 17, 1980. We were supposed to play
in a cup match two days later. They
postponed the match out of respect. Jimmy
had spent the day in Ballymena, on holiday.
He was on the train back to Belfast, about to
get off at the next stop, Grangeville Gardens
in Finaghry. The train had just passed through
the Black’s Road tunnel when the bomb
exploded. A fireball swept through the
carriage, killing three of the passengers—
Jimmy, the IRA scum carryin’ a knapsack
with the bomb and a Nigerian immigrant with
three children, an accountant who’d lived in
Belfast for ten years.
Two of the bastards had boarded the rear
carriage of the train. Each one had a bomb.
They were goin’ to plant the bombs then
leave the train to telephone a warnin’. But
one of the bombs went off prematurely when
the fella tried to prime it. He was burned to
death, dyin’ instantly in the fireball. The
other was drenched with burnin’ petrol. He
ran along the train screamin’ “I’m burnin’,
help me.”
When the IRA admitted the bombin’ they
said: “Unfortunately the unexpected is not
somethin’ we can predict or prevent in the
war situation this country is in. The
consequences of the unexpected are often
grave and distressin’, as Thursday night’s
accident shows. To all the bereaved
families we offer our deepest and heartfelt
sympathy.”
Jimmy burned to death. So did the IRA
bastard carryin’ the bomb. I hate them for
what they did to my cousin.
(He turns to Romeo.)
What am I supposed to do with this hate?
(Lights fade on Benvolio and Romeo.)
(Lights up on Lady Capulet in Juliet’s
bedroom.)
Lady Capulet
(calling)
Catherine? Catherine?
(A woman, early 40s, enters.)
Where’s my daughter? Call her forth to
me.
Catherine
God in heaven, I’ve called the girl twice
already. Where is she? Juliet!
Juliet
(offstage)
How now! Who calls?
Catherine
Your mother.
Juliet
(entering)
Mother, I am here. What is your will?
Lady Capulet
This is the matter: — Catherine, give
leave awhile, we must talk in secret: —
Catherine, come back again; I have
remember’d me, thou’s hear our counsel.
Thou know’st my daughter’s of a pretty
age.
62 Crystal Brian
Catherine
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. An I
might live to see thee married once, I have
my wish.
Lady Capulet
Marry, that ‘marry’ is the very theme. I
came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
how stands your disposition to be married?
Juliet
It is an honour that I dream not of.
Catherine
(laughing)
An honour!
Lady Capulet
Well, think of marriage now; the valiant
Paris seeks you for his love.
Lady Capulet
We follow thee.
(The girl exits.)
Juliet, your man waits.
(Lady Capulet exits. Catherine goes to Juliet.)
Catherine
I’m so happy for you, my love. May the
good Lord protect you and give you all the
joy and good fortune you deserve.
(She holds Juliet to her tightly, overcome with
emotion, then releases her.)
Go, sweet, seek happy nights to happy days.
(Juliet exits. Catherine watches her go, then
turns to the audience, matter-of-factly, with
great humor and strength.)
Juliet
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move:
but no more deep will I endart mine eye
than your consent gives strength to make
it fly.
Catherine
Michael and I had known each other since we
were wee little children.
But he didn’t have the balls to ask me out
until we were sixteen. Well, no. I was sixteen.
He was eighteen. After two years he proposed
to me. Well, no. I wouldn’t call it a proposal
exactly. Since I made him do it. He had this
crazy idea to go traveling around the world
with his buddies. I wasn’t gonna let him just
walk out of my life was I? I said, “Michael,
do you love me?” “Of course” he says. I say,
“Michael, if you love me so much. Then
you’d better propose to me or I’m gonna run
off with your brother.” And then I swear to
you by Christ he gets down on one knee and
says, “Catherine I love you more than the
rooster and less then the hen, but you’re all I
got and I’ll be dammed if I let my bastard
brother steal that away from me.” Then we
both had a good laugh and he got up and
threw his big arms around me and began
tickling me with his beard. He looks me in
the eyes and says “Catherine, so help me god,
I’ve never loved anybody more than I love
you. Will you have me?” Now what’s a good
little Catholic girl going to say to that?
“Fuck yeah”, I says.
(A neighborhood girl enters)
(She laughs deeply at the memory.)
Mary
The guests are come, supper served up, you
called, my young lady asked for, and every
thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I
beseech you, follow straight.
A couple o’ days later Michael took me out
to celebrate at his favorite place. The woods
besides me house! After we were done
“celebrating” we went and sat in his car. I
didn’t want to leave him just yet, I don’t
know why. I kept asking him questions about
our future, how many kids we’d have, what
Catherine
A man! Oh, Juliet, such a man as all the
world.
Lady Capulet
What say you? Can you love the
gentleman? This night you shall behold
him at our feast; read o’er the volume of
young Paris’ face, and find delight writ
there with beauty’s pen; so shall you share
all that he doth possess, by having him,
making yourself no less.
Catherine
(laughing)
No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.
Lady Capulet
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 63
their names would be. A car pulled up behind
us. I didn’t think anything of it. Figured it
was just my brother pulling up behind us. I
looked over at Michael and he had gone pale
white, like he’d seen the holy father or
something. Just then six men surrounded the
car. Well, no. Not men. Men don’t hide
behind hoods. They opened my door first.
“Don’t touch her!” Michael screamed. An
arm grabbed me and threw me to the ground.
“Don’t move” he whispered then pushed my
head hard against the ground. Michael didn’t
scream. He didn’t cry. I hear eleven shots
every morning when I wake up, and I hear
eleven shots every night when I go to bed.
Alone.
(Lights cross-fade on Catherine, lost in the
past, and come up on Romeo, Mercutio and
Benvolio walking down the street in high
spirits.)
Mercutio
If love be rough with you, be rough with
love; prick love for pricking, and you beat
love down.
Give me a case to put my visage in: a visor
for a visor! What care I what curious eye
doth quote deformities? Here are the beetle
brows shall blush for me.
Benvolio
Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,
but every man betake him to his legs.
Mercutio
Come, we burn daylight, ho!
Romeo
Nay, that’s not so.
Romeo
And what mean we by goin’ to a Catholic
party?
Mercutio
I mean, sir, in delay we waste our lights in
vain, like lamps by day. Take our good
meaning, for our judgment sits five times
in that ere once in our five wits.
Benvolio
Let them measure us by what they will; we’ll
measure them a measure, and be gone.
Romeo
And we mean well in going to this mask;
but ’tis no wit to go.
Romeo
Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling;
being but heavy, I will bear the light.
Mercutio
Why, may one ask?
Mercutio
Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
Romeo
Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
with nimble soles: I have a soul of lead so
stakes me to the ground I cannot move.
Mercutio
You are a lover; borrow Cupid’s wings, and
soar with them above a common bound.
Romeo
Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.
Mercutio
And, to sink in it, should you burden love;
too great oppression for a tender thing.
Romeo
Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, too
rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.
Romeo
I dream’d a dream to-night.
Mercutio
And so did I.
Romeo
Well, what was yours?
Mercutio
That dreamers often lie.
Romeo
In bed asleep, while they do dream things
true.
Mercutio
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with
you. She is the fairies’ midwife, and she
comes in shape no bigger than an agatestone on the fore-finger of an alderman,
drawn with a team of little atomies athwart
men’s noses as they lie asleep; Her wagon-
64 Crystal Brian
spokes made of long spiders’ legs, the
cover of the wings of grasshoppers, the
traces of the smallest spider’s web, the
collars of the moonshine’s watery beams,
her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of
film, her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
not so big as a round little worm prick’d
from the lazy finger of a maid; her chariot
is an empty hazel-nut made by the joiner
squirrel or old grub, time out o’ mind the
fairies’ coachmakers. And in this state she
gallops night by night through lovers’
brains, and then they dream of love; o’er
courtiers’ knees, that dream on court’sies
straight, o’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight
dream on fees, o’er ladies ‘ lips, who
straight on kisses dream, which oft the
angry Mab with blisters plagues, because
their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s
nose, and then dreams he of smelling out a
suit; and sometime comes she with a tithepig’s tail tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies
asleep, then dreams he of another
benefice: sometime she driveth o’er a
soldier’s neck, and then dreams he of
cutting foreign throats, of breaches,
ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, of healths
five-fathom deep; and then anon drums in
his ear, at which he starts and wakes, and
being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
and sleeps again. This is that very Mab
that plats the manes of horses in the night,
and bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
which once untangled, much misfortune
bodes: this is the hag, when maids lie on
their backs, that presses them and learns
them first to bear, making them women of
good carriage: this is she—
Benvolio
This wind, you talk of, blows us from
ourselves; supper is done, and we shall come
too late.
Romeo
Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou
talk’st of nothing.
Romeo
What lady is that?
Mercutio
True, I talk of dreams, which are the
children of an idle brain, begot of nothing
but vain fantasy, which is as thin of
substance as the air and more inconstant
than the wind, who wooes even now the
frozen bosom of the north, and, being
anger’d, puffs away from thence, turning
his face to the dew-dropping south.
Romeo
I fear, too early: for my mind misgives some
consequence yet hanging in the stars shall
bitterly begin his fearful date with this night’s
revels and expire the term of a despised life
closed in my breast by some vile forfeit of
untimely death. But He, that hath the
steerage of my course, direct my sail! On,
lusty gentlemen.
(Lights fade as Romeo, Mercutio and
Benvolio exit. Musical interlude. Lights come
up on party guests Irish step-dancing and
celebrating in Capulet house. Paris and
Capulet speak over the noise.)
Paris
My lord, what say you to my suit?
Lord Capulet
Woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, my will
to her consent is but a part.
(A Capulet relative arrives. Capulet greets the
guest.)
Welcome, gentleman! You are welcome!
Musicians, play. Foot it, girls.
(Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio, with hoods
of sweat shirts pulled up to hide their faces,
enter behind Capulet as he talks to the
relative. They quickly join in the dancing.
When the song ends, Romeo—who has been
watching Juliet—turns to one of the party
guests.)
Guest
I know not sir.
Romeo
She doth teach the torches to burn bright!
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of
stand, and, touching hers, make blessed my
rude hand. Did my heart love till now?
forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty
till this night.
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 65
(Romeo waits for a break in the dance when
Paris leaves Juliet to get himself a drink.
Romeo quickly takes Paris’ place, dancing
and laughing with Juilet. Tybalt watches the
couple closely, exploding with rage when he
realizes who Romeo is.)
Tybalt
This should be a Montague!
(to a young Capulet family member standing
near)
Get me my gun!
(The boy exits.)
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, to
strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
Capulet
(noticing Tybalt’s fury and moving him away
from the crowd)
Why, how now, kinsman! Wherefore storm
you so?
Tybalt
Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, a villain
that is hither come in spite, to scorn at our
solemnity this night.
Capulet
Young Romeo is it?
Tybalt
’Tis he, that villain Romeo.
Capulet
Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone; I
would not for the wealth of all the town here
in my house do him disparagement: therefore
be patient, take no note of him.
Tybalt
It fits, when such a villain is a guest: I’ll not
endure him.
Capulet
He shall be endured!
(Capulet moves back to party guests.)
Tybalt
Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting
makes my flesh tremble in their different
greeting. I will withdraw: but this intrusion
shall now seeming sweet convert to bitter
gall.
(Tybalt exits. During the exchange between
Capulet and his nephew, the dance has
ended. Romeo takes Juliet’s hand and
pulls her with him, through the dancers
and off to a private area where the two sit,
out of breath and laughing.)
Romeo
If I profane with my unworthiest hand this
holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: my lips,
two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to
smooth that rough touch with a tender
kiss.
JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too
much, which mannerly devotion shows in
this; for saints have hands that pilgrims’
hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy
palmers’ kiss.
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers
too?
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in
prayer.
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands
do; they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to
despair.
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for
prayers’ sake.
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I
take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin
is purged.
JULIET
Then have my lips the sin that they have
took.
ROMEO
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly
urged! Give me my sin again.
JULIET
You kiss by the book.
(Catherine notices Romeo and Juliet and
quickly crosses to them.)
66 Crystal Brian
CATHERINE
I know not.
Juliet, your mother craves a word with you.
JULIET
(Juliet leaves.)
ROMEO
What is her mother?
Go ask his name: if he be married. My grave is like to
be my wedding bed.
CATHERINE
CATHERINE
(stops cleaning and crosses to Juliet)
Her mother is the lady of the house. What
His name is Romeo, and a Montague; son
are you thinkin’, you and your friends,
great enemy and friend to those who hate
comin’ here? Leave now, before any of the
others see you.
JULIET
(As Romeo begins to protest.
My only love sprung from my only hate!
Fiercely.)
seen unknown, and known too late!
Leave the girl alone. Don’t you know the
Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I
world of trouble you’ll be bringin’ on her?
loathed enemy.
of your
our kind.
Too early
must love a
(She leaves.)
LADY CAPULET
(offstage)
ROMEO
Juliet!
Is she a Capulet? O dear account! my life is
my foe’s debt.
CATHERINE
(Taking Juliet by the arm.)
(As Tybalt returns with a group of men,
Come, let’s away; the strangers all are gone.
Mercutio and Benvolio rush to Romeo.)
BENVOLIO
Away, begone; the sport is at the best.
ROMEO
Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
(Juliet pulls away and crosses back to the door,
staring after Romeo.)
CATHERINE
Juliet!
(The three exit hurriedly, as Capulet and (Juliet doesn’t answer. After a moment Catherine
Tybalt watch for a moment. Capulet bids sighs, deeply troubled, then gathers up more dishes
the rest of the guests goodnight, then turns and exits. Juliet stands, lost in thought. Moira
to his his wife and Juliet.)
watches her for a moment, then crosses to the door
and stands beside Juliet on the porch, looking at the
LORD CAPULET
night sky.)
Come on then, let’s to bed.
MOIRA
It’s beautiful out tonight.
(Everyone exits but Juliet, Catherine and a
JULIET
young girl, one of the party guests, who
sits by herself, listening to the nurse and (startled, turns to her)
Yes. Yes, it is.
Juliet.)
JULIET
Come hither, Catherine. What is yond
gentleman?
CATHERINE
MOIRA
(after a moment)
A year ago tonight it was that Stephen died. A clear,
still evenin’. Like this one.
JULIET
Moira, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…
(Cleaning up the remains of the party.)
MOIRA
(intensely)
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 67
What can you be thinkin’? They hate us. You
know that. How can you let one of ‘em touch
you like that, knowin’ what they’ve done.
ground, in memory of the ones who have
died in these Troubles. One of them
crosses, it was for Stephen.
(Juliet is silent.)
His sisters sang one of his songs at the
rally. “What Price Peace?” he called it.
(She sings.)
“What price peace,
will it cost us all our lives?
And when there’s no one left to die,
Will peace come then?
What price peace,
is it coming, is it gone?
Have we had our share
or is it still to come?”
MOIRA
(Crossing to the edge of the porch, she sits on
the steps, looking out at the night. Without
emotion.)
He had a beautiful voice, my Stephen.
Whenever he wrote a new song I was the first
one he’d play it for.. In his room at
University. I’d lie there on his bed as he
played his guitar. I could have listened to him
for the rest of my life.
I was so proud when he played at the peace
meetin’s. He had started a group, Witness for
Peace, when he was a student. He never
missed a rally.
(Juliet listens silently as Moira continues in
the same, matter-of-fact fashion.)
The Shankill Butchers killed him. It was a
Saturday night. We’d been to a dance at the
Queen’s University student union. There was
a party after. By the time we left, it was two
in the mornin’. Stephen was walkin’ me
home. We’d got to Brown Street, near city
centre, when a car pulled up beside us. I’ll
never forget that car—mustard yellow it
was—a Ford Cortina. Four of ‘em jumped out.
One pushed me down on the ground. The
other three grabbed Stephen and threw him
into the back of the car. Lyin’ there in the
street I heard the tires scream as the car raced
away. I got up on me knees in time to see the
red tail lights in the distance. I screamed as
they turned the corner. Then there was
nothin’… but blackness.
I found out later they had been drinkin’ all
night at a Loyalist club. When the club closed
they decided to go out and get a Taig. After
they put Stephen in the car they stopped at a
house. One of ‘em ran in to get a gun and and
a knife. Then they drove to Glencairn. They
took my Stephen inside, to the back of a club.
They shot him in the head, then cut his
throat with a butcher knife. My sweet
Stephen, with his beautiful voice…
A week after he died his group held a rally.
They planted 1,162 white crosses in the
(She holds the last note for a moment,
then silence. She stands, turns to look at
Juliet, then walks down the porch steps
and off into the night. Juliet stands
watching her, then crosses to sit on the
steps where Moira had been. Romeo enters
the street; seeing Juliet on the porch steps
he quickly hides himself.)
ROMEO
But soft! What light through yonder
window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is
the sun. It is my lady, it is my love!
JULIET
Ay me!
ROMEO
She speaks:
O, speak again, bright angel!
JULIET
O Romeo, Romeo! Deny thy father and
refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but
sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a
Capulet. ’Tis but thy name that is my
enemy; thou art thyself, though not a
Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor
hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any
other part belonging to a man. O, be some
other name! What’s in a name? That
which we call a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet; so Romeo would,
were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear
perfection which he owes without that
title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for that
name which is no part of thee take all
myself.
68 Crystal Brian
ROMEO
I take thee at thy word:
JULIET
What man art thou that thus bescreen’d in
night so stumblest on my counsel?
ROMEO
By a name I know not how to tell thee
who I am: my name, is hateful to myself,
because it is an enemy to thee; had I it
written, I would tear the word.
JULIET
My ears have not yet drunk a hundred
words of that tongue’s utterance, yet I
know the sound: art thou not Romeo and a
Montague?
ROMEO
Neither, if either thee dislike.
JULIET
How camest thou hither, tell me, and
wherefore? The orchard walls are high and
hard to climb, this place is death,
considering who thou art, if any of my
kinsmen find thee here. If they do see
thee, they will murder thee.
ROMEO
There lies more peril in thine eye than
twenty of their guns: look thou but sweet,
and I am proof against their enmity.
JULIET
I would not for the world they saw thee
here.
ROMEO
I have night’s cloak to hide me from their
sight; and but thou love me, let them find
me here: my life were better ended by their
hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy
love.
JULIET
Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say
‘Ay,’ and I will take thy word: yet if thou
swear’st, thou mayst prove false. O gentle
Romeo, if thou dost love, pronounce it
faithfully: or if thou think’st I am too
quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse and
say thee nay, so thou wilt woo; but else,
not for the world. In truth, fair Montague,
I am too fond, and therefore thou mayst
think my ‘havior light: but trust me,
gentleman, I’ll prove more true than those
that have more cunning to be strange. I
should have been more strange, I must
confess, but that thou overheard’st, ere I was
ware, my true love’s passion: therefore
pardon me, and not impute this yielding to
light love, which the dark night hath so
discovered.
ROMEO
Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear that
tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—
JULIET
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant
moon, that monthly changes in her circled
orb, lest that thy love prove likewise
variable.
ROMEO
What shall I swear by?
JULIET
Do not swear at all; or, if thou wilt, swear by
thy gracious self, which is the god of my
idolatry, and I’ll believe thee.
ROMEO
If my heart’s dear love—
JULIET
Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee, I
have no joy of this contract to-night: it is
too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; too like
the lightning, which doth cease to be ere one
can say ‘It lightens.’ Good night, good night!
As sweet repose and rest come to thy heart as
that within my breast!
(she starts to go inside)
ROMEO
(blocking the doorway)
O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
JULIET
(taken aback)
What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
ROMEO
The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for
mine.
JULIET
(softening)
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 69
I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
and yet I would it were to give again. My
bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as
deep; the more I give to thee, the more I
have, for both are infinite.
(From inside the house Catherine calls,
“Juliet!”)
I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu!
Anon, Catherine! Sweet Montague, be true.
Stay but a little, I will come again.
ROMEO
So thrive my soul—
JULIET
A thousand times good night!
ROMEO
A thousand times the worse, to want thy
light.
(He starts to exit.)
(Juliet starts to go inside the house, but
Romeo moves quickly toward her, pulls her to
him and kisses her. After a moment, she
responds. Finally, she pushes him away.)
JULIET
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night
indeed. If that thy bent of love be
honourable, thy purpose marriage, send me
word to-morrow, by one that I’ll procure to
come to thee, where and what time thou wilt
arrange with the priest to perform the rite;
and all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay and
follow thee my lord throughout the world.
CATHERINE
(offstage)
Juliet!
JULIET
(calling to Catherine)
I come, anon— (to Romeo) But if thou
mean’st not well, I do beseech thee—
CATHERINE
(offstage)
Juliet!
JULIET
(calling to Catherine)
By and by, I come.
(continuing, to Romeo)—to cease thy suit,
and leave me to my grief.
(The two stare at one another for a moment,
overwhelmed by the implications of what they
are doing. Finally Romeo breaks the silence.)
ROMEO
I will go to the priest.
JULIET
(quietly)
Then tomorrow will I send for thee.
JULIET
Romeo! At what o’clock to-morrow shall I
send to thee?
ROMEO
At the hour of nine.
JULIET
I will not fail: ’tis twenty years till then. I
have forgot why I did call thee back.
ROMEO
Let me stand here till thou remember it.
Forgetting any other home but this.
JULIET
Tis almost morning; I would have thee
gone: good night, good night! Parting is
such
sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night
till it be morrow.
(Catherine has comes to the door in time
to hear Romeo and Juliet telling one
another goodbye. Juliet watches as Romeo
leaves. She turns and sees Catherine.)
JULIET
(After a moment. With great simplicity and
strength.)
I don’t care. I love him.
(Juliet and Catherine stare at one another
for a long moment.)
CATHERINE
(quietly)
Then God help us all.
(Catherine holds Juliet close to her. After a
moment Juliet pulls away, and returns to
the porch steps. Catherine stands,
listening.)
70 Crystal Brian
JULIET
She wasn’t much older than me, that
Protestant girl. Anne, they said her name
was. She had a wee little one, five years
old. She was raisin’ her on her own.
Workin’ two jobs and takin’ care of that
little girl. She just wanted a bit o’ fun. Who
could blame her?
She went out after work with her
girlfriends for a few drinks. There was a
man she fancied at the club. She asked him
to dance. It was a Prod club.
When she left to pick up her daughter a
gang of UVF fellas followed her. Just as she
and her little one were about to get on the
Glengall Street bus, they grabbed her and
took her and the girl to a loyalists’ club on
the Castlereagh Road. One of ‘em gave the
little girl money for sweets; when she left
the room, they locked the door. They
pushed Anne in a chair, put a hood over
her head and beat her face in with a brick.
In the middle of killin’ her they stopped to
have a smoke.
As Anne screamed, her little girl stood
outside, bangin’ on that locked door and
cryin’ “My mama’s in there…”
They hit Anne more than two dozen times
with that brick before she died.
After they finished with her, they went out
for a drink, then to a disco. Later they
dumped her body behind an abandoned
house on Donegal Avenue in South Belfast.
Early the mornin’ Anne was killed her
mother got a telephone call from a man
said he was takin’ her daughter home,
askin’ if that was where she lived. It was
one of those drunken animals, soberin’ up
and scared he’d killed the wrong girl. The
drunken idiots thought she was a Catholic.
One of ‘em said the father of her little girl
was a Provo hunger-striker in Long Kesh
and they all believed it.
They killed her, they orphaned that little
girl, because they thought she was
Catholic. She wasn’t. She was a Prod.
What world are we livin’ in, where a
mother is killed because she asks the
wrong man to dance? Where a wee
little girl listens to her mother scream
while she’s beaten to death by
drunken animals who hate because it
makes’ em feel like they’re men.
Christ, when are we going to stop
killin’ each because we’re afraid?
(Catherine crosses to Juliet. They sit
in silence as the lights fade.)
(Lights come up on the Father in his office
reading. There is a knock at the door. Romeo
steps into the doorway.)
ROMEO
Good morrow Father. May I come in?
FATHER
(hesitates)
My door is always open.
ROMEO
I am alone and I wish no trouble.
FATHER
Come in then.
ROMEO
I’ll get right to the point. I was at the
Capulet house last night—I’m in love with
Juliet.
And I want you to marry us…today.
FATHER
Is that all?
(Pause.)
You’re wasting your time son. I won’t help
you construct your own death.
ROMEO
I don’t care if I die—
FATHER
Neither do I! It’s Juliet I’m protecting. Do
you know what the IRA does to Catholic girls
who get mixed up with Protestant boys? (No
answer.) If you do love her, then forget her.
No good can come of this.
ROMEO
No good? That’s the problem with you
Catholics, you can’t think for yourselves
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 71
without getting permission from the fucking
pope! (He exits down stairs.) I don’t
understand you. You stand on your soap box
and preach peace, but you’re too scared of
your own people to actually do anything
about it. I came for your help, not your
permission. (Starts to exit.)
FATHER
Do you love her Romeo?
(Romeo stops but doesn’t look back.)
Then you need to think long and hard about
what you’d be bringin’ her into. Can you
protect her from your own prejudice? It’s her
life you risk. Do you know that?
ROMEO
I’ve done nothing wrong but fall in love. If
that’s not enough, then nothing is.
(He starts to exit.)
FATHER
Wait.
(Romeo stops.)
Don’t do anything rash. Get her to my office
this afternoon. It must be done right if it
must be done.
(Romeo nods, then starts to exit.)
And Romeo—if you ever stand in my office
and curse the pope again, I’ll bury you myself
in God’s green earth. Go. And think about
what I said.
(Romeo exits. Lights cross-fade on Father
and come up on street as Benvolio and
Mercutio enter.)
MERCUTIO
Where the devil should this Romeo be? Came
he not home to-night?
BENVOLIO
Not to his father’s.
BENVOLIO
Nay, he will answer the letter’s master,
how he dares, being dared.
MERCUTIO
Alas poor Romeo! Is he a man to
encounter Tybalt?
BENVOLIO
Why, what is Tybalt?
(Romeo enters. Benvolio signals Mercutio
to change the subject.)
Here comes Romeo.
MERCUTIO
(ignoring Benvolio)
Signior Romeo, bon jour! there’s a French
salutation to your French slop. You gave us
the counterfeit fairly last night.
ROMEO
Good morrow to you both. What
counterfeit did I give you?
MERCUTIO
The slip, sir, the slip; can you not
conceive?
ROMEO
(puzzled by the aggression he senses
behind Mercutio’s joking manner, but
attempting to play the game)
Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was
great; and in such a case as mine a man
may strain courtesy.
MERCUTIO
That’s as much as to say, such a case as
yours constrains a man to bow in the
hams.
ROMEO
Meaning, to court’sy.
BENVOLIO
Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet, hath sent
a letter to his father’s house.
MERCUTIO
Thou hast most kindly hit it.
MERCUTIO
A challenge, on my life.
ROMEO
A most courteous exposition.
BENVOLIO
Romeo will answer it.
MERCUTIO
Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
MERCUTIO
Any man that can write may answer a letter.
72 Crystal Brian
ROMEO
Pink for flower?
Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most
sharp sauce.
MERCUTIO
Right.
ROMEO
And is it not well served into a sweet goose?
ROMEO
Why, then is my pump well flowered.
MERCUTIO
O here’s a wit of cheveril that stretches from
an inch narrow to an ell broad!
(Romeo, pleased at his witticism, slaps
Mercutio on the back in a friendly fashion.
Mercutio responds by shoving back so
forcefully that Romeo is knocked off
balance. He stares at his friend in
confusion.)
MERCUTIO
Well said: follow me this jest now till thou
hast worn out thy pump, that when the
single sole of it is worn, the jest may
remain after the wearing sole singular.
ROMEO
O single-soled jest, solely singular for the
singleness.
MERCUTIO
(barely concealing his fury with Romeo)
Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits
faint.
ROMEO
Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I’ll
cry a match.
MERCUTIO
Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I
have done, for thou hast more of the wildgoose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I
have in my whole five: was I with you
there for the goose?
ROMEO
Thou wast never with me for anything
when thou wast not there for the goose.
MERCUTIO
I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
ROMEO
Nay, good goose, bite not.
MERCUTIO
ROMEO
(happy to have won the war of wits)
I stretch it out for that word ‘broad;’ which
added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a
broad goose.
MERCUTIO
(his veneer of self-control shattered by
Romeo’s exuberance; furiously)
Why, is not this better now than groaning for
love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou
Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as
well as by nature:
for this driveling love is like a great natural,
that runs lolling up and down to hide his
bauble in a hole.
(Mercutio advances on Romeo. Benvolio
stops him.)
BENVOLIO
Stop there, stop there.
MERCUTIO
(breaking free of Benvolio, he crosses to
Romeo, shoving him violently)
I can numb myself to anything. That’s the
first thing they taught us. You find your spot
on the wall, create a flame and watch it
flicker. Block everything else out. But I don’t
want to numb myself to this. I know where
you were last night! Let me tell you
something. Every day was a hard day’s work
for me father. He worked seven days a week
to support his wife and five children. He took
a job as a police officer because it was good,
honest, hard work and because he took an
interest in the community that he lived in.
Not because he gave a damn about those
fuckin’ bastards. He walked out his front door
one day to two masked men with Brownings
pointed at his face. They didn’t even have
the decency to take him away from his own
home. They shot him in the throat and then
like scared little girls they ran. They didn’t
even bother to kill him properly. He lay
there choking on his own blood for two hours
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 73
until my little sister came home from school
to find him dead on the front steps. He
drowned in his own blood.
I stood at my father’s grave, and I’ll be
dammed if you’re gonna prance around with
one of their little sluts!
ROMEO
Watch your fuckin’ mouth—
(Romeo attacks Mercutio who wrestles him,
pinning him to the ground. The drumming is
heard, building in intensity and volume as
Mercutio continues.)
MERCUTIO
They gave me a browning of my own. Quite
similar to the one that killed me father. One
to show those provo bastards we weren’t
goin’ to roll over and die. I waited for one of
those pricks outside his house as he drove up
with his wife and daughter. And that’s when it
hit me. The killing rage. Like a savage animal
I ran to his car and grabbed him by the hair,
dragged him out of his car kickin’ and
screamin’. Threw him to the ground and
began stomping on his face. He needed to
pay. Justice needed to be served. As I kicked
the teeth out of his mouth his wife threw
herself on top of him. He could barely move.
I kicked her down flat over him and fired
three shots over her shoulder directly into his
face. I turned to see his daughter bouncing up
and down a thousand times a second in the
back seat of his car. I thought she was gonna
break her neck on the roof. She was screamin’
so loud I thought my ears were gonna bleed.
(The drumming stops. In the silence Mercutio
struggles to recover his control, then crosses
back to Romeo and helps him up.)
It’s time you start acceptin’ the world you
live in.
(Catherine enters. Mercutio quickly covers,
acting as if nothing has happened.)
CATHERINE
God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
MERCUTIO
God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.
CATHERINE
Is it good den?
MERCUTIO
’Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand
of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.
(Mercutio and Benvolio exit.)
CATHERINE
Marry, farewell! I pray you, what saucy
merchant was this that was so full of his
ropery?
ROMEO
A gentleman that loves to hear himself
talk, and will speak more in a minute than
he will stand to in a month.
CATHERINE
Pray you, a word: as I told you, Juliet bade
me inquire you out. What she bade me say,
I will keep to myself. But first let me tell
ye, if ye should lead her into
a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very
gross kind of behavior.
(Romeo starts to interrupt; Catherine cuts
him off)
Try as I might, she’ll not listen to reason.
She’s too trustin’. She doesn’t understand
the world we’re livin’ in. She thinks love
will protect the both of you. I know better.
I love her like a sister, so I’m doin’ what
she asked. But I’m beggin’ you now: leave
her alone. No good can come of you and
her.
ROMEO
(intensely)
You have no call to trust my kind. I know
that. And I don’t have the words to make
you believe me. I love her, Catherine. I
never knew what love was until the night I
laid eyes on Juliet. And nothin’ in this
world or the one beyond is goin’ to keep us
apart.
(For a long moment Catherine looks into
his eyes. When she doesn’t answer, he
continues.)
Bid her devise some means to come to
shrift this afternoon. And there she shall at
Father’s cell be shrived and married.
(Catherine stares at him for a moment
longer, then turns and exits. Romeo
watches her go. He turns to leave and sees
his father approaching.)
74 Crystal Brian
MONTAGUE
Romeo!
(Romeo stops but says nothing.)
I’m not going to let you go through with
this.
ROMEO
What are you talking about?
MONTAGUE
Is this why you’ve been avoiding me?
ROMEO
I’m not avoiding you.
(He starts to leave.)
MONTAGUE
Do you know what they’ll do to you if
they find out?
ROMEO
Fuck the IRA.
MONTAGUE
I’m not talking about the IRA. I’m talking
about our own.
(Romeo falters; stares at his father.)
I’ve already lost one son. Will you give
your mother another reason to hate me?
You were probably too young to remember
your brother Colin. Sometimes I try not
to think about it. But the harder I try not
to think…the more I do. Sometimes I just
let it play out in my mind. Like some sort
of punishment. He loved you very much.
He was going to teach you to play rugby.
I could hear soldiers outside. That wasn’t
unusual. A little while later your mother
got startled, she had some sort of dark
premonition. She thought it might be a
good idea to get the kids into a central
room. I told her she was over reacting. I
was waiting for a commercial. First thing I
heard was the broken glass. Then the gun
shot. It was supernatural. I ran to Colin’s
room. I saw him standing in the corner
frozen. “Don’t move Colin. Everything’ll
be all right.” Just then the room lit up with
flashes. I was grazed by a bullet and Collin
seemed to fall along the wall. I thought he
fainted from seeing me bleed, but then I
saw the back of his head was covered with
blood and I knew the flashes had been
bullets and that Colin was shot. He was
only nine years old…nine years old.
ROMEO
I do remember, I just haven’t forgiven you.
(Romeo walks away. Montague watches him
go. Lights fade. Lights rise on the Capulet’s
house where Juliet waits for Catherine to
return.)
JULIET
The clock struck nine when I did send
Catherine; in half an hour she promised to
return.
Perchance she cannot meet him: that’s not
so. Now is the sun upon the highmost hill of
this day’s journey, and from nine till twelve is
three long hours, yet she is not come.
(Catherine approaches.)
O God, she comes! What news? Hast thou
met with him? O Lord, why look’st thou sad?
Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily. If
good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
by playing it to me with so sour a face.
(Catherine doesn’t answer)
Nay, come, I pray thee, speak; please, please
speak.
(Catherine looks at Juliet, still not speaking.)
Is thy news good, or bad? Answer to that; say
either, and I’ll stay the circumstance: let me
be satisfied, is’t good or bad? What says he of
our marriage? What of that?
(Clearly struggling with her decision,
Catherine turns to Juliet, holding her by the
shoulders as she looks into her face. Juliet,
understanding Catherine’s misgivings, waits
silently for her answer. Catherine finally
breaks her silence.)
CATHERINE
Have you got leave to go to confession
today?
JULIET
I have.
CATHERINE
Then hie you hence to Father’s cell. There
stays a husband to make you a wife. Go, I’ll
to dinner. Hie you to the cell.
JULIET
Thank you, thank you!
(Juliet exits. Catherine watches her go, then
stands, deep in thought as the lights fade.
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 75
Lights fade up on Romeo and the Father at
the church.)
the second cup draws it on the drawer,
when indeed there is no need.
FATHER
So smile the heavens upon this holy act, that
after hours with sorrow chide us not!
BENVOLIO
Am I like such a fellow?
ROMEO
Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can, do
thou but close our hands with holy words,
then love-devouring death do what he dare; it
is enough I may but call her mine.
FATHER
These violent delights have violent ends and
in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
(Juliet enters. She and Romeo kiss
passionately, until the Father separates
them.)
JULIET
Good even to my ghostly confessor.
ROMEO
Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy be
heaped like mine, and that they skill be more
to blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
this neighbor air.
JULIET
They are but beggars that can count their
wealth. But my true love is grown to such
excess I cannot sum up sum of half my
wealth.
FATHER
(Moved by the depth of their love)
Come with me, and we will make short work;
for, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
till holy church incorporate two in one.
(Lights fade as they exit. Lights up as
Benvolio and Mercutio enter.)
BENVOLIO
I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire: the
day is hot, the Capulets abroad, and, if we
meet, we shall not scape a brawl.
MERCUTIO
Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy
mood as any, and as soon moved to be
moody, and as soon moody to be moved.
BENVOLIO
And what to?
MERCUTIO
Nay, and there were two such, we should
have none shortly, for one would kill the
other. Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a
man that hath a hair more, or a hair less,
in his beard, than thou hast: thou wilt
quarrel with a man for cracking nuts,
having no other reason but because thou
hast hazel eyes: what eye but such an eye
would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is
as fun of quarrels as an egg is full of meat,
and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle
as an egg for quarrelling: thou hast
quarreled with a man for coughing in the
street, because he hath wakened thy dog
that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou
not fall out with a tailor for wearing his
new doublet before Easter? With another
for tying his new shoes with old riband?
And yet thou wilt tutor me from
quarrelling!
BENVOLIO
And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art,
any man should buy the fee-simple of my
life for an hour and a quarter.
MERCUTIO
The fee-simple! O simple!
BENVOLIO
By my head, here comes Tybalt.
MERCUTIO
By my heel, I care not.
(Tybalt enters. Drumming is heard.)
MERCUTIO
Thou art like one of those fellows that when
he enters the confines of a tavern claps me
his sword upon the table and says ‘God send
me no need of thee!’ and by the operation of
TYBALT
Gentlemen, good den: a word with one of
you.
76 Crystal Brian
MERCUTIO
And but one word with one of us? Couple it
with something; make it a word and a blow.
TYBALT
Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that
thou hast done me.
(Tybalt aims guns at Romeo.)
TYBALT
You shall find me apt enough to that sir,
and you will give me occasion.
MERCUTIO
Could you not take some occasion without
giving?
TYBALT
Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo—
MERCUTIO
Consort! What, dost thou make us
minstrels? And thou make minstrels of us,
look to hear nothing but discords.
BENVOLIO
We talk here in the public haunt of men:
either withdraw unto some private place,
and reason coldly of your grievances, or
else depart; here all eyes gaze on us.
MERCUTIO
Men’s eyes were made to look, and let
them gaze; I will not budge for no man’s
pleasure, I.
(Romeo enters.)
TYBALT
Well, peace be with you, sir: here comes
my man.
MERCUTIO
But I’ll be hanged, sir, if he wear your
livery: marry, go before to field, he’ll be
your follower; your worship in that sense
may call him ‘man.’
TYBALT
Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford no
better term than this. Thou art a villain.
ROMEO
Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
doth much excuse the appertaining rage to
such a greeting: villain am I none;
therefore farewell; I see thou know’st me
not.
ROMEO
(turns and faces Tybalt)
I do protest, I never injured thee, but love
thee better than thou canst devise, till thou
shalt know the reason of my love. and so,
good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly
as my own, be satisfied.
(Tybalt cocks his gun.)
MERCUTIO
O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
(Mercutio grabs Tybalt’s hand, struggling for
the gun.)
TYBALT
What wouldst thou have with me?
(The gun drops.)
MERCUTIO
Good king of cats, nothing but one of your
nine lives.
TYBALT
I am for you.
(Tybalt and Mercutio fight. Mercutio knocks
Tybalt to the ground. Pulling out a knife, he
starts to stab Tybalt. As he draws his arm
back, Romeo stops him and the knife falls.)
ROMEO
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage!
(Tybalt quickly jumps to his feet, runs off)
MERCUTIO
Is he gone, and hath nothing?
(Tybalt returns with a group of hooded men.
They seize Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio.
Forcing Mercutio to his knees, they place a
hood on his head. Tybalt stands behind
Mercutio and pulls out a gun.)
MERCUTIO
Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me
a grave man. A plague on both your houses!
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 77
(To Romeo) Why the devil came you
between us?
ROMEO
I thought all for the best.
MERCUTIO
A plague on both your houses! They have
made worms’ meat of me…
(Tybalt shoots Mercutio in the back of the
head. He pulls off Mercutio’s hood. Then,
still holding the gun, he crosses to Benvolio
and Romeo, as they struggle on the
ground. He threatens both with the gun as
he speaks.)
TYBALT
I remember my first. Everybody does. They
say it’s the best and worst at the same time.
I was sitting in a pool hall when an
informant approached me. A local
electrician who told me he had spotted a
uniform hanging in one of the houses he
worked. I wanted to check it out for myself.
Sure enough, the fuck was working for the
Crown and living in my own neighborhood.
I got clearance from my superiors almost
immediately. Then I started scouting him
almost every day. I couldn’t believe how
cocky he was. Never checked under his car,
never changed his routine. He was as good
as dead.
His execution was set for March 14 th, just
two months after my initial conversation in
the pool hall. I was to be driven in on a
motorcycle. We were going to park on the
side of the road at the entrance to his street
pretending to have a flat tire. When he
passed we would follow him up and do the
deed. After, I was to be brought two blocks
over where we would ditch the bike and hop
in a car that would take me to a safe house
until I could be brought across the border.
Like clockwork he passed us right on time
with his wife in the passenger seat. He
turned left onto his street as he had always
done. As soon as he pulled into his driveway
he looked in his rearview mirror and saw us
pull up. He knew. He forced his wife to the
ground as he ran out of the car making a
dramatic attempt for the house. He kept
skipping around and waving his umbrella at
me like he was in a fuckin’ fencing match. I
just laughed as I calmly stepped off my
bike and walked towards him. He fumbled
for the door as I buried three shots in his
chest. As he fell I walked up and let off
five more in his face. People talk and
people die.
I don’t see humans anymore. I see us and
them. We kill you or you kill us. It’s as
simple as that.
(Tybalt crosses to Mercutio. He takes out a
knife and cuts Mercutio’s throat, while
looking at Romeo. Then he and the other
Provos exit. Romeo crosses to Mercutio’s
body and kneels beside him.)
ROMEO
This gentleman My very friend, hath got
his mortal hurt In my behalf.—Tybalt,
that an hour Hath been my kinsman!
BENVOLIO
(crossing to Mercutio’s body)
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
Which too untimely here did scorn the
earth.
ROMEO
This day’s black fate on more days doth
depend; this but begins the woe others must
end.
(He searches Mercutio’s body until he finds
a gun. Tybalt reenters, butcher knife in
hand.)
BENVOLIO
Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
ROMEO
Alive, in triumph! And Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective lenity, and
fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!
(Hides gun in his jacket.)
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,
that late thou gavest me; for Mercutio’s
soul is but a little way above our heads,
staying for thine to keep him company.
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with
him.
TYBALT
(advancing on Romeo with knife)
78 Crystal Brian
Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him
here, shalt with him hence.
(Romeo pulls the gun from his jacket and
shoots Tybalt)
POLICE OFFICER
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses. Nor
tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
Therefore use none. When he’s found, that
hour is his last. Bear hence this body and
attend our will. Mercy but murders, pardoning
those that kill.
BENVOLIO
Romeo, away, be gone! The citizens are
up, and Tybalt slain. Stand not amazed. It
will by thy death, if thou art taken. Hence,
be gone, away!
(The police officer exits. Lady Capulet, still
kneeling beside Tybalt’s body, looks at the
crowd. After a moment, she rises, moves
away from the body and speaks to the people
gathered in the street.)
(Romeo stands frozen, in shock.)
LADY CAPULET
It was January 30, 1972. Bloody Sunday. I
had gotten up early that mornin’, went to
mass before joinin’ the marchers. It was a
beautiful day, clear and crisp. The crowd was
in great spirits. Lots of excitement.
Bernadette Devlin and Ivan Cooper rode the
lorry drivin’ in front of us as we made our
way down to Free Derry Corner. We were
singin’ “We Shall Overcome.” Ivan and the
others were talkin’ over the loud speaker.
“Civil rights for all—no more internment
without trial” we shouted. It was an incredible
feelin’, we were a part of somethin’ powerful.
We would stop the pain.
ROMEO
This shall determine that.
BENVOLIO
Why dost thou stay?
(Romeo exits. A group of men and women
enter.)
MAN
Which way ran he that kill’d Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
BENVOLIO
There lies that Tybalt.
(A police officer of the Royal Ulster
Constabulary enters with Lords Montague
and Capulet, their wives and family.)
POLICE OFFICER
Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
LADY CAPULET
Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother’s child!
POLICE OFFICER
Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
LADY CAPULET
He is a kinsman to the Montague.
Affection makes him false, he will not
speak true. I beg for justice, which thou
must give. Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo
must not live.
FATHER
Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio. Who
now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MONTAGUE
Not Romeo he was Mercutio’s friend. His
fault concludes but what the law should
end, the life of Tybalt.
As we turned the corner, part of the crowd
didn’t want to turn. They kept goin’ down to
the town center. Ivan jumped down off the
lorry to stop ‘em. He yelled at the rest of us
to follow the lorry and we did. We followed it
down the street to where it stopped at the
corner of the Rossville Street Flats. We could
hear shootin’ behind us but we thought the
soldiers were shootin’ plastic bullets at the
crowd who were throwin’ rocks and bottles.
Bernadette Devlin started shoutin’, “Get
down, they’re shootin’ real bullets.” We ran.
It was mad. Everyone tryin’ to find shelter,
behind cars, inside the flats. The soldiers—
the B-Specials—came up the street. They
were shootin’ into the crowd. A boy was hit
right on the steps at Fahan Street. He was
screamin’. I could see all the blood on the
steps. So much blood. We were afraid to go to
him. There was shootin’ all around us. We
couldn’t tell where it was comin’ from. Then
the man who’d been crouchin’ down next to
me stood up and pulled out a handkerchief. I
said, “What in God’s name are you doin’? Get
back down before they shoot us.” He said,
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 79
“Can’t you hear him cryin’ out there? He’s
dyin’. I can’t let him die alone.” And he
ducked down and started to run toward the kid
lyin’ on Fahan Street. He took two steps
forward before he fell. The soldiers, they shot
him in the head. There was blood all over his
face. Me and a couple of others started to
crawl toward him. We could hear the
gunshots, but we kept crawlin’. When I got to
him, I could see the whole top of his head was
gone. I knew he was dead. I started screamin’.
I couldn’t ‘stop. My nerves had gone. One of
the men from the ambulance picked me up.
They took me to hospital.
That brave man. He was the fourth person
killed that Sunday in Derry when the Army
started shootin’ into the crowd of marchers.
By the time it was over 13 people were dead.
Another died later from his injuries. All
innocents. I keep rememberin’ the crowd that
mornin’. So much hope. All gone.
CATHERINE
(sobbing)
He’s dead. Shot in the street.
JULIET
(shocked and uncomprehending)
Can heaven be so envious?
CATHERINE
Romeo can, though heaven cannot.
Whoever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET
What devil art thou, that dost torment me
thus? This torture should be roar’d in
dismal hell. Hath Romeo slain himself? Say
thou but ‘I,’ and that bare vowel ‘I’ shall
poison more than the death-darting eye of
cockatrice. I am not I, if there be such an
I; or those eyes shut, that make thee
answer ‘I.’ If he be slain, say ‘I’; or if not,
no. Brief sounds determine of my weal or
woe.
(The crowd is still. The lights fade.)
ACT TWO
(Lights fade up on Juliet, waiting for
Catherine.)
JULIET
Come, gentle night, come, loving, blackbrow’d night, give me my Romeo; and, when
he shall die, take him and cut him out in little
stars, and he will make the face of heaven so
fine that all the world will be in love with
night and pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love, but
not possess’d it, and, though I am sold, not
yet enjoy’d. So tedious is this day as is the
night before some festival to an impatient
child that hath new robes and may not wear
them. O, here she comes, and she brings
news; and every tongue that speaks but
Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.
What news?
(Catherine, visibly distraught, doesn’t
answer)
JULIET
(frightened)
What’s wrong? What in God’s name has
happened?
CATHERINE
I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes.
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub’d in blood. I
fainted at the sight.
JULIET
O, break, my heart! Poor bankrupt, break
at once! To prison eyes, ne’er look on
liberty! Vile earth, to earth resign, end
motion here. And thou and Romeo press
one heavy bier!
CATHERINE
O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had! O
courteous Tybalt! Honest gentleman! That
ever I should live to see thee dead!
JULIET
What storm is this that blows so contrary?
Is Romeo slaughter’d, and is Tybalt dead?
My dear-loved cousin and my dearer lord?
Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general
doom! For who is living, if those two are
gone?
CATHERINE
Tybalt is gone, and Romeo has fled. Romeo
that kill’d him, he will be executed.
80 Crystal Brian
JULIET
O God! Did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s
blood?
JULIET
Blister’d be thy tongue for such a wish! He
was not born to shame! O, what a beast
was I to chide at him!
so many times. I can see ‘em walkin’ along,
laughin’ and talkin’, when the car comes
‘round that corner. He was just a kid, the
Provo drivin’ the car. Danny Lennon his
name was. They shot him, the British
soldiers, because he’d tried to kill an Army
officer. They shot him in the head. As he was
dyin’ he kicked down on the gas pedal and
plowed into Anne and the kids. All three of
‘em were killed. She was in hospital
unconscious for two weeks. Both of her legs
were broken, and her pelvis. The doctors said
the brain bruisin’ turned her psychotic.
(She pauses, lost in her thoughts, then
continues)
She never saw her children buried. I think
that’s why she couldn’t accept their deaths.
I’d find her sittin’ in her kitchen, starin’ out
at the garden. She said she could see ‘em
playin’ out there. She locked herself in a
private world with her dead babies. (Pause)
One mornin’ she cut her wrists with an
electric carvin ‘knife. Her boy found her in
the kitchen when he came home from school
that day. She was already dyin’—there was
nothin’ he could do.
CATHERINE
Will you speak well of him that kill’d your
cousin?
Hate killed you, Anne. Now I understand.
(to Catherine)
Where are my parents?
JULIET
(sobbing)
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
‘Romeo is condemned,’ to speak that word,
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
all slain, all dead. ‘Romeo is condemned!’
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
in that word’s death; no words can that
woe sound.
(She collapses in her grief for a few
moments. Then, taking a deep breath to
calm herself, she speaks quietly,
reflectively)
When Anne died she left a note. “Forgive
me—I love you.” She never finished the
note. I’ve wondered so often how she
could do that—cut her own wrists.
When we were growin’ up, she was always
the funny one who kept us goin’, no
matter how bad things got. She could
always make me laugh. She and her Colin
were a real love match. Neither one ever
cared a flip for anyone ‘til they met each
other. She’d had the three kids out that
mornin’ shoppin’. I’d done that with her
CATHERINE
Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corpse.
Will you go to them?
CATHERINE
It did, it did. Alas the day, it did!
JULIET
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! Just
opposite to what thou justly seem’st. A
damned saint, an honourable villain! Was
ever book containing such vile matter so
fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell in
such a gorgeous palace!
CATHERINE
There’s no trust, no faith, no honesty in
men. These griefs, these woes, these
sorrows make me old. Shame come to
Romeo!
JULIET
(with terrible resolve)
Wash they his wounds with tears. Mine shall
be spent, when theirs are dry, for Romeo’s
banishment. I’ll to my wedding-bed and
death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
CATHERINE
(horrified)
It’s a mortal sin! Hie to your chamber. I’ll
find Romeo to comfort you. I know well
where he is. Hark ye, your Romeo will be
here at night. I’ll to him; he is hid at the
Father’s cell.
JULIET
O, find him! And bid him come to take his
last farewell.
(Lights fade. Lights up on Father’s cell where
Romeo is hiding. Father enters.)
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 81
ROMEO
What news? What is my doom? What sorrow
craves acquaintance at my hand that I yet
know not?
FATHER
Too familiar is my dear son with such sour
company. You are sentenced to death. You
must flee. Soujourn in the south. I shall
signify, from time to time, every good hap to
you that chances here.
ROMEO
Banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death;’ for
exile hath more terror in his look, much
more than death. Do not say ‘banishment.’
FATHER
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO
There is no world away from here, but
purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence-banished
is banish’d from the world, and world’s exile
is death. Then banished is death mis-term’d.
Calling death banishment, thou cutt’st my
head off with a golden axe, and smilest upon
the stroke that murders me.
FATHER
O deadly sin!
ROMEO
Heaven is here, where Juliet lives. And every
cat and dog and little mouse, every unworthy
thing, live here in heaven and may look on
her, but Romeo may not. More validity, more
honourable state, more courtship lives in
carrion-flies than Romeo. They may seize on
the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand and
steal immortal blessing from her lips, who
even in pure and vestal modesty, still blush, as
thinking their own kisses sin. But Romeo
may not, he is banished. Flies may do this,
but I from this must fly. They are free men,
but I am banished. And say’st thou yet that
exile is not death? Hadst thou no gun, no
sharp-ground knife, no sudden mean of death,
though ne’er so mean, but ‘banished’ to kill
me? ‘Banished’? O father, the damned use
that word in hell. Howlings attend it. How
hast thou the heart, being a divine, a ghostly
confessor, a sin-absolver, and my friend
profess’d, to mangle me with that word
‘banished’?
FATHER
Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a
word.
ROMEO
O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
FATHER
I’ll give thee armour to keep off that
word, adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy,
to comfort thee, though thou art banished.
ROMEO
Yet ‘banished’? Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
displant a town, it helps not, it prevails
not. Talk no more.
FATHER
O, then I see that madmen have no ears.
ROMEO
How should they, when that wise men have
no eyes?
FATHER
Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
ROMEO
Thou canst not speak of that thou dost
not feel. Wert thou as young as I, Juliet
thy love,
an hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
doting like me and like me banished, then
mightst thou speak.
(There is a knock on the door.)
FATHER
Good Romeo, hide thyself.
CATHERINE
(offstage)
Let me come in. Juliet has sent me.
(Catherine enters)
ROMEO
Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
Doth she not think me an old murderer,
now I have stain’d the childhood of our
joy with blood removed but little from her
own?
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CATHERINE
She says nothing, but weeps and weeps.
And now falls on her bed, and then starts
up, and Tybalt calls, and then on Romeo
cries, and then down falls again.
ROMEO
As if that name, shot from the deadly level
of a gun, did murder her; as that name’s
cursed hand murder’d her kinsman. O, tell
me, father, tell me, in what vile part of
this anatomy doth my name lodge? Tell
me, that I may sack the hateful mansion.
FATHER
Hold thy desperate hand. Thy wild acts
denote the unreasonable fury of a beast.
Thou hast amazed me! By my holy order, I
thought thy disposition better temper’d.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay
thyself? And stay thy lady too that lives in
thee, by doing damned hate upon thyself?
What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,
for whose dear sake thou wast but lately
dead. There art thou happy. Tybalt would
kill thee, but thou slew’st Tybalt. There are
thou happy too. Go, get thee to thy love,
as was decreed. Ascend her chamber hence
and comfort her. But look thou stay not
till the watch be set, for then thou canst
not pass to Killarney where thou shalt live,
till we can find a time to call thee back
with twenty hundred thousand times more
joy than thou went’st forth in
lamentation.
(to Catherine)
Go before. Commend me to Juliet; and bid
her hasten all the house to bed, which
heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.Romeo
is coming.
CATHERINE
O Father, I could have stay’d here all the
night to hear good counsel. O, what
learning is! I’ll tell Juliet you will come.
(gives Romeo a ring)
Here, a ring she bid me give you. Make
haste, for it grows very late.
(Catherine exits.)
FATHER
Go hence. Good night. And here stands all
your state. Either be gone before the watch
be set, or by the break of day disguised
from hence.
(Romeo stands uncertainly.)
FATHER
(Urgently)
It’s late. Go!
(Romeo and the Father exchange a long
look, then Romeo runs into the street and is
gone. Lights fade on the Father as he stands,
looking after Romeo and lost in thought.)
(Lights up on Romeo and Juliet in Juliet’s
bedroom)
JULIET
Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day. It
was the nightingale, and not the lark, that
pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
ROMEO
It was the lark, the herald of the morn, no
nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. I
must be gone and live, or stay and die.
JULIET
Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I. It is
some meteor that the sun exhales, to be to
thee this night a torch-bearer, and light thee
on thy way to Killarney. Therefore stay yet.
Thou need’st not to be gone.
ROMEO
(Flinging his jacket down, he sweeps Juliet
up in his arms and falls onto the bed with
her.)
Let me be taken, let me be put to death. I am
content, so thou wilt have it so. No, that is
not the lark, whose notes do beat the vaulty
heaven so high above our heads. I have more
care to stay than will to go. Come, death, and
welcome! Juliet wills it so. How is’t, my soul?
Let’s talk. It is not day.
(For a moment Juliet lets herself be lost in
the moment as Romeo kisses her. Then she
frantically pushes him away.)
JULIET
It is, it is! Hie hence, be gone, away! It is the
lark that sings so out of tune, straining harsh
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 83
discords and unpleasing sharps. Some say the
lark makes sweet division. This doth not so,
for she divideth us. Some say the lark and
loathed toad change eyes. O, now I would
they had changed voices too! Since arm from
arm that voice doth us affray, hunting thee
hence with hunt’s-up to the day. O, now be
gone. More light and light it grows.
the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight
fails, or thou look’st pale.
ROMEO
More light and light. More dark and dark our
woes!
LADY CAPULET
(Offstage)
Daughter! Are you up?
CATHERINE
(offstage)
Juliet!
JULIET
My mother! Is she not down so late, or up
so early? What unaccustom’d cause
procures her hither?
ROMEO
And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.
Good-bye.
(Romeo leaves.)
(Catherine enters.)
CATHERINE
Your mother is coming to your room. The
day is broke. Be wary, look about.
(She exits.)
(Juliet quickly covers herself in the bed as
her mother enters.)
LADY CAPULET
Why, how now, Juliet!
JULIET
Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
JULIET
Mother, I am not well.
ROMEO
One kiss and I’ll descend.
LADY CAPULET
Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave
with tears? And if thou couldst, thou
couldst not make him live. Therefore,
have done. Some grief shows much of love.
But much of grief shows still some want of
wit.
(Romeo kisses Juliet. She holds onto him in
desperation. After a moment, he pulls himself
free and climbs out the window.)
JULIET
(Speaking from window to Romeo in street.)
Art thou gone so? Love, lord, husband,
friend! I must hear from thee every day in
the hour, for in a minute there are many
days. O, by this count I shall be much in years
ere I again behold my Romeo!
ROMEO
Farewell! I will omit no opportunity that
may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
JULIET
O think’st thou we shall ever meet again?
ROMEO
I doubt it not. And all these woes shall serve
for sweet discourses in our time to come.
JULIET
O God, I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I
see thee, now thou art below, as one dead in
JULIET
Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
LADY CAPULET
Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his
death, as that the villain lives which
slaughter’d him.
JULIET
What villain madam?
LADY CAPULET
That same villain, Romeo.
JULIET
Ay, madam, from the reach of these my
hands would none but I might venge my
cousin’s death!
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LADY CAPULET
We will have vengeance for it, fear thou
not. He shall soon keep Tybalt company.
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
JULIET
Indeed, I never shall be satisfied with
Romeo, till I behold him—dead—is my
poor heart for a kinsman vex’d. O, how
my heart abhors to hear him named, and
cannot come to him. To wreak the love I
bore my cousin upon his body that
slaughter’d him!
LADY CAPULET
But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
JULIET
And joy comes well in such a needy time.
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
LADY CAPULET
Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child.
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
hath sorted out a sudden day of joy, that
thou expect’st not nor I look’d not for.
JULIET
Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
LADY CAPULET
Marry, my child, early next Thursday
morn, the gallant, young and noble
gentleman,
Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church, shall
happily make thee there a joyful bride.
JULIET
(shocked)
Now, by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter
too, he shall not make me there a joyful
bride.
I wonder at this haste, that I must wed ere
he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father,
madam, I will not marry yet. And, when I
do, I swear, It shall be Romeo, whom you
know I hate, rather than Paris. These are
news indeed!
LADY CAPULET
(taken aback by Juliet’s rebellious tone)
Here comes your father; tell him so
yourself, and see how he will take it at
your hands.
(Capulet and Catherine enter.)
CAPULET
When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew.
But for the sunset of my brother’s son it rains
downright. How now, wife! Have you
deliver’d to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET
Ay, sir. But she will none. She gives you
thanks. I would the fool were married to her
grave!
CAPULET
Soft! Take me with you, take me with you,
wife. How will she none? Doth she not give
us thanks? Is she not proud? Doth she not
count her blest, unworthy as she is, that we
have wrought so worthy a gentleman to be
her bridegroom?
JULIET
Not proud, you have, but thankful that you
have. Proud can I never be of what I hate.
But thankful even for hate, that is meant
love.
CAPULET
How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
‘Proud,’ and ‘I thank you,’ and ‘I thank you
not.’ And yet ‘not proud.’ Mistress minion,
you, thank me no thankings, nor, proud me
no prouds, but fettle your fine joints ‘gainst
Thursday next, to go with Paris to Saint
Peter’s Church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle
thither.
LADY CAPULET
What, are you mad?
JULIET
Good father, I beseech you on my knees, hear
me with patience but to speak a word.
CAPULET
Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient
wretch! I tell thee what. Get thee to church
on Thursday, or never after look me in the
face! Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.
CATHERINE
God in heaven bless her! You are to blame to
rate her so.
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 85
CAPULET
O, God
LADY CAPULET
You are too hot.
CAPULET
God’s bread! It makes me mad. Day, night,
hour, tide, time, work, play, alone, in
company, still my care hath been to have her
match’d! As you will not wed, I’ll pardon
you. Graze where you will, you shall not
house with me. Look to it, think on it, I do
not use to jest. Thursday is near. Lay hand on
heart, advise. And you be mine, I’ll give you
to my friend. And you be not, hang, beg,
starve, die in the streets, for, by my soul, I’ll
ne’er acknowledge thee, nor what is mine
shall never do thee good. Trust to it, bethink
you. I’ll not be forsworn!
(Capulet exits.)
JULIET
(to her mother, desperately)
Is there no pity sitting in the clouds that sees
into the bottom of my grief? O, sweet my
mother, cast me not away! Delay this
marriage for a month, a week.
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed in that
dim monument where Tybalt lies.
LADY CAPULET
Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do
as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
(Lady Capulet exits.)
JULIET
(To Catherine)
O God! How shall this be prevented? Comfort
me, counsel me.
(Catherine doesn’t answer.)
What say’st thou? Hast thou not a word of
joy? Some comfort?
CATHERINE
(Pause. Quietly.)
Faith, here it is. Romeo is gone. And all the
world to nothing that he dares ne’er come
back to challenge you. Or, if he do, it needs
must be by stealth. Then, since the case so
stands as now it doth, I think it best you
married with Paris. He’s one of our own,
Juliet. You will be happy in this second
match. It’s for the best. Your first is dead. Or
‘twere as good he were, as living here and
you no use of him. It wasn’t meant to be.
You must forget. You have to accept the
world you’re livin’ in.
JULIET
Speakest thou from thy heart?
CATHERINE
And from my soul too or else beshrew
them both.
JULIET
Amen!
CATHERINE
What?
JULIET
Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous
much. Go in and tell my mother I am gone,
having displeased my father, to make
confession and to be absolved.
CATHERINE
(greatly relieved, embraces Juliet)
I will. This is wisely done.
(Catherine exits.)
JULIET
(furiously)
Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
‘Accept the world I’m livin’ in’?
(after a moment; with great resolution)
Go, counselor. Thou and my bosom
henceforth shall be twain. I’ll to the
Father, to know his remedy. If all else fail,
myself have power to die.
(She exits.)
(Lights up on church as Father and Paris
enter.)
FATHER
On Thursday, son? The time is very short.
PARIS
My father Capulet will have it so. And I
am nothing slow to slack his haste.
FATHER
You say you do not know the lady’s mind.
Uneven is the course, I like it not.
(He sees Juliet approaching)
86 Crystal Brian
Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my
cell.
(Juliet enters.)
PARIS
Happily met, my lady and my wife!
JULIET
That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PARIS
That may be must be, love, on Thursday
next.
JULIET
What must be shall be.
FATHER
That’s a certain text.
PARIS
Come you to make confession to this
father?
JULIET
To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS
Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET
I will confess to you that I love him.
PARIS
So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
JULIET
If I do so, it will be of more price being
spoke behind your back than to your face.
PARIS
Poor soul, thy face is much abused with
tears.
JULIET
The tears have got small victory by that,
for it was bad enough before their spite.
PARIS
Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that
report.
JULIET
That is no slander, sir, which is a truth.
And what I spoke, I spoke it to my face.
PARIS
Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander’d it.
JULIET
It may be so, for it is not mine own. Are you
at leisure, holy father, now? Or shall I come
to you at evening mass?
FATHER
My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
PARIS
God shield I should disturb devotion! Juliet,
on Thursday early will I rouse you. Till then,
adieu, and keep this holy kiss.
(Paris kisses Juliet, then exits.)
JULIET
O shut the door! And when thou hast done so,
come weep with me, past hope, past cure,
past help!
FATHER
Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief. It strains
me past the compass of my wits.
JULIET
Tell me not, friar, that thou hear’st of this.
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our
hands. And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo
sealed shall be the label to another deed, or
my true heart with treacherous revolt turn to
another, this shall slay them both. Therefore,
out of thy long-experienced time give me
some present counsel, or, behold, ‘twixt my
extremes and me this bloody knife shall play
the umpire. Be not so long to speak. I long to
die if what thou speak’st speak not of
remedy.
FATHER
Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope which
craves as desperate an execution as that is
desperate which we would prevent. If, rather
than to marry Paris, thou hast the strength
of will to slay thyself, then is it likely thou
wilt undertake athing like death to chide away
this shame that copest with death himself to
scape from it. And, if thou darest, I’ll give
thee remedy.
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 87
JULIET
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, from
off the battlements of yonder tower. Or shut
me nightly in a charnel-house, o’er-cover’d
quite with dead men’s rattling bones, with
reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls. Or
bid me go into a new-made grave and hide me
with a dead man in his shroud, things that, to
hear them told, have made me tremble, and I
will do it without fear or doubt, to live an
unstain’d wife to my sweet love.
FATHER
Hold, then. Go home, be merry, give consent
to marry Paris. Wednesday is to-morrow. Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone. Take
thou this vial, being then in bed, and this
distilled liquor drink thou off. When
presently through all thy veins shall run a
cold and drowsy humour for no pulse shall
keep his native progress, but surcease. No
warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest.
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade to
paly ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall, like death,
when he shuts up the day of life. And in this
borrow’d likeness of shrunk death thou shalt
continue two and forty hours, and then awake
as from a pleasant sleep. Now, when the
bridegroom in the morning comes to rouse
thee from thy bed, there art thou dead. Then,
as the manner of our country is, in thy best
robes thou shalt be borne to that same
ancient vault where all the kindred of the
Capulets lie. I will watch thy waking, and that
very night shall I bear thee hence to Romeo.
And this shall free thee from this present
shame, if no inconstant toy nor womanish
fear abate thy valour in the acting it.
JULIET
Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!
FATHER
Hold. Get you gone, be strong and prosperous
in this resolve.
JULIET
Love give me strength! And strength shall
help afford. Farewell, dear father!
(Lights fade as Juliet exits. Lights up on
Juliet, alone in her room. Catherine enters
with wedding gown.)
JULIET
Ay, those attires are best. But, sweet friend, I
pray thee, leave me to myself to-night, for I
have need of many orisons to move the
heavens to smile upon my state, which,
well thou know’st, is cross, and full of sin.
(Juliet and Catherine embrace and
Catherine exits. Juliet sinks down on her
bed and pulls out the vial from the priest.)
What have we done, my love? What a
whirlwind of troubles we’ve unleashed.
Where will it end?
(She stares at the vial, lost in thought.)
August 10, 1976. She was drivin’ down
Divas Street in Belfast that sunny
afternoon, Her two children were in the
back seat. When she heard the rifle fire,
she pulled to the side. It was a familiar
sound. She could identify the guns. Her
first instinct was to protect her children.
In the next instant the car in front of her
careened out of control, the young
Republican, Danny Lennon, shot by British
soldiers. As he died, his foot pressed down
on the accelerator. He drove straight into
that young mother and her three children.
Betty stopped her car. She ran to the spot
where the children lay. Two of them, little
John and six-week-old Andrew, were
already dead. She knelt beside eight-yearold Jo Anne—she held her to her body,
tryin’ to comfort, as the little girl
screamed, terrified, in agony. She was a
beautiful child, with that Irish, red/gold
hair, curly, glorious. Thick strands were
wrapped around the steerin’ wheel of the
IRA volunteer’s car. The child had been
scalped. Betty knelt there in the street,
holdin’ that dyin’ babe and she made a
promise to that little girl to do everythin’
in her power to stop the killin’ of the
innocents. She was so angry on that day.
Filled with the rage of that terrible week.
Hopin’ her screams could stop the insanity.
(Juliet lifts the bottle.)
Love. If it isn’t enough, then nothing is.
Romeo, I come. This do I drink to thee.
(She drinks. After a moment, she slumps
over. Lights fade. Music plays.)
(Lights fade up on Juliet’s room. Catherine
enters.)
CATHERINE
Juliet…Juliet?
(She shakes Juliet on the bed, increasingly
panicked.)
Oh my god, Juliet, Juliet…
(crying)
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Oh, my sweet girl. No…no…No more
death. Oh, my sweet child…
(She kneels by the bed, cradling Juliet’s
body during the following.)
It was the winter of 1972 when I lost me
boy. Tommy didn’t get involved in this
crap. His father died of cancer when he was
only three years old, leaving me and
Tommy alone. I did what I had to do to
put food on the table and it broke my little
boy’s heart. As soon as Tommy was strong
enough to put a sack on his shoulder, he
dropped out of school and began working
full time. I begged him not to. But he
wouldn’t hear of it. Just like his father he
was. Stubborn, brave. Right around the turn
of the decade money got real tight and the
shipping dock laid him off, said they didn’t
want no Catholics working there.
Working? Nobody wanted us living, let
alone working. We lost our home. So
Tommy joined the Royal Army. They were
offering good honest work for a young a
man. He saved up and bought me a house in
Dublin. He even got them to transfer him
to compassionate grounds in Northern
Ireland so he could come see me every
weekend. Tommy could have had any girl
he wanted. He was a beautiful boy. But he
didn’t care. He just worked and worked and
when he wasn’t working he came down to
visit his poor mother. He didn’t deserve
this. He was fucking Catholic for Christ
sakes. They’re killin their own people. He
looked so handsome when he got out of
the car in his uniform. I told him not to
wear it when he came to visit me. But he
was so proud. He had such a warm smile.
And his eyes. His eyes could make his
mother melt, he was such sweet boy. They
jumped out of the car behind him. Tommy
didn’t run. He just kept saying, “I’m
Catholic. I’m Catholic. I’m Catholic.”
They threw my boy to the ground. They
covered his face. His beautiful face. “I’m
Catholic”. I was screaming for them to
stop. “Don’t cry mother” Tommy says
“It’s gonna be ok” “It’s gonna be ok. I’m
Catholic.” Then one of ‘em grabbed him
up on his knees. And another put a gun to
the back of my baby’s head. “It’s gonna be
ok mother… don’t cry”.
(She sobs, holding Juliet, as lights fade.)
(Lights fade up on Romeo, as Balthasar
enters.)
ROMEO
How doth my lady? Is my father well? How
fares my Juliet? That I ask again, for nothing
can be ill, if she be well.
BALTHASAR
O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
since you did leave it for my office.
(Pause)
She’s dead.
(Romeo doesn’t respond)
I saw her laid low in her kindred’s fault.
ROMEO
(After a moment)
Is it even so? (Pause) Then I defy you, stars!
BALTHASAR
I do beseech you, have patience. Your looks
are pale and wild, and do import some
misadventure.
ROMEO
(with great effort, controlling his emotions)
Thou art deceived. Leave me. Do the thing I
bid you do.
(Balthasar hesitates)
Get thee gone. I’ll be with thee straight.
(Balthasar exits.)
ROMEO
Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.
(Lights fade. Musical bridge. Lights fade up
on Romeo, at crypt, motionless. Paris enters.)
PARIS
This is that haughty Montague that murdered
my love’s cousin. What villainous shame does
he intend now?
(Paris moves toward Romeo)
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.
Obey, and go with me, for thou must die.
ROMEO
I must indeed, and therefore came I hither. I
beseech thee, put not another sin upon my
head by urging me to fury. Be gone! Stay not.
Live, and hereafter say a madman’s mercy
bade thee run away.
The Troubles of Romeo and Juliet 89
PARIS
I do defy thy conjurations, and apprehend
thee for a felon here.
ROMEO
(to Balthasar)
Upon thy life I charge thee, whate’er thou
hear’st or seest, stand all aloof and do not
interrupt me in my course. If thou, jealous,
dost return to pry in what I further intend to
do, by heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
and strew this hungry churchyard with thy
limbs. The time and my intents are savagewild, more fierce and unrelenting than empty
tigers or the roaring sea.
Oh, my love! My wife! Death that hath
sucked the honey of thy breath hath had
no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou are
not conquered.
(He touches her face and picks up her
hand, kissing the palm.)
Juliet, what were we thinking? We never
had a chance. It wasn’t my fault. I don’t
control these feelings. They control me.
But I’m going to do the right thing.
There’s a lot of bad out there, and I feel it
in me. I feel it in my veins and it’s taking
me over. I don’t want to pass it on to
somebody else. I want it to end, right
here…right now.
(looking at Juliet)
Eyes look your last.
(He holds her)
Arms, take your last embrace. And lips, the
doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a
dateless bargain to engrossing death.
(He kisses her.)
Here’s to my love.
(He puts the gun to his temple, then takes
it down and looks at Juliet.)
(Composing himself)
I said a prayer for us yesterday.
(He puts the gun to his temple)
God knows who was listening.
(he shoots himself)
BALTHASAR
I will be gone and not trouble you.
(Juliet wakes with the gunshot. Seeing
Romeo’s body, she begins to scream.)
ROMEO
So shalt thou show me friendship.
Juliet
(screaming)
No….no….God, no………
(After a moment, she finds the knife.)
I love you.
(She plunges knife into her chest,
collapsing on top of Romeo.)
(Paris draws his gun.)
ROMEO
Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee,
boy!
(Romeo chokes Paris.)
PARIS
If thou be merciful, lay me with Juliet.
(As Paris dies, Balthasar enters, then stops,
shocked at the site of Romeo standing over
the body of Paris.)
BALTHASAR
(pretends to leave, then conceals himself near
tomb)
For all the same, I’ll hide me hereabout. His
looks I fear and his intents I doubt.
ROMEO
(with Paris’ body)
Let me peruse this face. Mercutio’s kinsman,
Paris. Oh, give me thy hand, one writ with
me in sour misfortune’s book. I’ll bury thee
in a triumphant grave.
(He drags Paris into the tomb, then stops,
frozen, at the sight of Juliet’s body.
He moves from her to Tybalt. For a moment
he absorbs the horror of it all,
then returns to Juliet.)
(Silence. Then the Father enters. He takes
in the scene—Romeo and Juliet dead. A
pause.)
FATHER
I remember Johnny Bingham’s funeral on
that cold, gray, February mornin’. The
Bishop of Down and Dromore, Robin
Eames, conducted the service. He was to
have married Johnny and his bride two
weeks later. I was so angry that mornin’.
Such a senseless killin’. Only cowards
would do such a thing. Johnny joined the
RUC for steady work. He wanted to get
90 Crystal Brian
married, to start a family. He wasn’t a
political person. Just a decent young man
wantin’ what every man wants. He was on
routine patrol that day when his car
tripped a hidden line connected to a
thousand pound land mine. Johnny and his
partner were killed instantly.
(he pauses, remembering)
The church that mornin’ was filled with
clergy. Protestants, Catholics, all of us sick
of the killin’. I’ll never forget the words
Robin Eames spoke: “Violence judges those
who practice it. Violence judges those who
react to it. Violence judges those who
accept it as inevitable…. “
(Pause)
My God, what have I done.
(The crowd arrives at the tomb.)
CAPULET
What should it be, that they so shriek
abroad?
LADY CAPULET
The people in the street cry Romeo, some
Juliet, and some Paris. And all run with
open outcry toward our monument.
We demand justice.
We hate because we’re hated.
We kill because we’ve been killed.
We want our rights. We want retribution.
No peace without justice.
But if justice must be bought with blood…
(He pauses, overwhelmed with sadness)
Too many children have died. Too much life
wasted—a mother’s labor spurned.
Bobby Sands said, “Our best revenge will be
our children’s laughter.” When will we stop
infectin’ children with our poison? We’re
destroyin’ our only hope.
(speaking to the crowd at the tomb and to
the audience)
A gloomin’ peace this mornin’ with it brings.
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad
things.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
(As lights fade and music plays, cast
members, one by one, begin a litany of
places in the world where religious and
sectarian violence have destroyed life.
Belfast, Columbine, Chechnya, Iraq, Israel,
Palestine, Kenya, Libya, New York City…and
on.)
CAPULET
Oh heavens, wife, look how our daughter
bleeds!
FATHER
(to Montague)
Come, Montague, for thou art early up to
see thy son and heir more early down.
MONTAGUE
Alas, Father, my wife is dead tonight. Grief
of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath.
What further woe conspires against mine
age?
FATHER
Look and thou shalt see.
MONTAGUE
Oh thou untaught! What manners is in
this? To press before thy father to a
grave?
FATHER
(with great pain)
What a whirlwind we reap.
Romeo mourns for Juliet
Editor’s Note: This script does not retain the original line
breakdowns of Shakespeare’s text. The changes were made
to facilitate a clean layout for the contribution. PLEASE
NOTE: Any parties interested in producing a staged version
of this script must obtain the permission of the author. The
author may be contacted through this publication.