Wild Rice's new take on The Bard's 'Romeo and Juliet'

Singapore theatre company Wild Rice has staged a great many productions like "Animal Farm" and "Boeing Boeing", but have never really gotten around to working on a play by Shakespeare. That is set to change on April 12 when Wild Rice stages The Bard's "Romeo and Juliet", a tale of two star-crossed lovers caught up in the bitter feud between their families, at the Drama Centre Theatre. "When Wild Rice celebrated its 10th Anniversary a couple of years ago, we reflected on our substantial body of work concerning the classics (Animal Farm, The Importance of Being Earnest, Boeing Boeing), and we felt that the time had come for us to take on the challenges of Shakespeare. "We felt it important to make these timeless and universal plays, some of the best works ever written in English, exciting and accessible for our audiences," said "Romeo and Juliet" director Ivan Heng in an e-mail interview. But of all the plays Shakespeare had written, why "Romeo and Juliet"? "I decided to start this journey with 'Romeo and Juliet' because audiences would be familiar with the story, and it is Shakespeare's most relatable play." "Anyone who has felt as a teenager that the world is conspiring to limit their choices will be able to identify with 'Romeo and Juliet'," Heng explained. Mind your "lahs" and "mehs" "Romeo and Juliet", which Heng described as "a family drama and action thriller", in addition to being a love story, will be set in contemporary Singapore and have a local twist, like most Wild Rice productions. But that doesn't mean the cast will be uttering Singlish versions of Shakespeare's text on stage during the show. "The fact that we have an all-Singaporean cast makes it a most singular experience. "The actors have worked hard to deliver the lines with precision and the ring of truth. There will be no 'lahs' or 'mehs', but we have been surprised at how well the verse works with a diversity of Singaporean accents," said Heng. Singapore actor Hansel Tan, who plays Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet", said the production team have taken care not to "overtly localize" Shakespeare's original text and believed that this is one of the main highlights of the play. "This production has set out to find the resonance of the local within Shakespeare's text without overtly localizing it. "In other words, there's a commensurate Singapore lurking within our Verona, and, if you listen closely, you might just see (and hear) yourself on stage," said Tan. Singapore actress Julie Wee, who plays Juliet in the massive production that also stars theatre veterans Neo Swee Lin and Lim Kay Siu, agreed. "We have set the story in Singapore, but haven't over 'Singaporeanised' it, and I hope that it will resonate with local audiences," said Wee, adding that she is very excited to play Juliet. "It is such a privilege to be trusted to attempt to bring Juliet to life. She is a person … with such extreme emotions that it is such a challenge and a joy to play her." "I hope that I will be a Juliet of contradictions and one that the audience can identify with, rather than a romanticized character that some people may have in mind."