25 January 2009

You kiss by the book

The Verona project, part XIXa, My Shakespeare (2005)

Not an R&J per se, but a documentary about the director Paterson Joseph's effort, with satellite moral and philosophical support from Baz Luhrmann, to stage the play with a cast with zero acting experience from the hardscrabble suburban London community of Harlesden.

A close cousin to Shakespeare Behind Bars--not quite at that mind-blowing level, but possessed of the same sorts of small victories and inevitable defeats. And one huge triumph, as an Afghan refugee whose family won't approve of her being on the stage at all, forget about kissing her Romeo, blossoms suddenly into a trouper.

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