Well, this was nice to see (story here, extract below), and it’s really excellent that they did it:
Peter Brown enters the No. 1 subway train on New York City’s Upper West Side, not far from his apartment. But to Brown, he is in the Capulets’ orchard, looking up at an imaginary balcony. In a trained, strong voice, he calls out these immortal words: “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun.”
Troian Bellisario boards the same No. 1 train through a different door and senses the bewilderment of the riders as they eye the lovesick Brown warily. Is he talking to himself? Practicing something? A weirdo?
But then Bellisario crosses to him, stands up on a seat and replies: “O, speak again, bright angel!”
A teenager looks up from her iPhone. “Oh, my God. It’s Juliet!”
And so begins the balcony scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet […]
(Image: Rahav Segev/Photopass.com)
…But the obvious thought springs to mind. I can’t help but think it is sad that, as USC students, they did not also do it on the Los Angeles subway system. We have one, you know. Perhaps they’ll do at least one performance* in the subway in the city where they learned their craft? Maybe someone reading knows more of the back story and – if explained – it’ll make perfect sense and I’ve no need to feel a bit saddened, especially in the face of an otherwise excellent idea for live performance.
-cvj
(*Or, even sadder – perhaps they did do it in LA too but it was not considered newsworthy until it was done in New York’s subway…..?)
