Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836

A dangerously divided city vies for turf on the sweltering streets of the Viex Carre. The Capulets and Montagues battle for control of New Orleans during Theatre at Boston Court’s sumptuous staging and new retelling of Shakespeare’s newly adapted, Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836. The Capulets, Creole and Catholic “free people of color,” call the Montagues boorish and opportunistic. The Montagues, newly arrived American Protestants, say the Capulets are immoral and elitist. Duels and street fights tear the city in two as they battle for control. Against the backdrop of this dangerous world, two naive youths find love against the barriers of race and culture, disregarding laws that forbid marriage between them.