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Rob Youngson/PBS
Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor as Romeo and Juliet, and Lucian Msamati as Friar Laurence, in the new
Romeo & Juliet on PBS's
Great Performances.
Rob Youngson/PBS
Why do people still perform
Romeo & Juliet? That, to mangle a reference, is the question.
It's not the question because there's anything wrong with the play or with producing the play or with updating the play; it's just, genuinely, a question. What makes things last? What makes people want to revisit them over and over? (And please don't say "quality." It is sometimes quality, but it is certainly not always quality, and even within the Shakespeare world but certainly outside of it, attempts to correlate greatness of work with cultural penetration and permanence will turn you into a human shruggie emoji.)