Synopsis

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Synopsis

 

The Montagues and Capulets are involved in a family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born. The feud continues due to the fact that neither family is ready to forgive and forget the past. They disrupt the peace of Verona and even Prince Escalus personally had to break up a fight, where the family members were heavily fined.

 

Romeo (Montague), who is in love with Rosaline, goes to a party in an effort to forget her or to ease his broken heart. At this party he meets Juliet, and immediately falls in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous "balcony scene" in which they agree to marry secretly. Friar Laurence agrees to marry them, thinking that the marriage may bring about an end to the feuding between the families. Unfortunately, subsequent to the wedding, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) , a good friend of Romeo's, ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt kills Mercutio, which causes Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona.

 

At the same time, the Capulets are planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet does not want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Laurence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that will make everyone think that she is dead. Friar Laurence promises to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off and to transport her to Mantua, where Romeo is currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo does not receive this message but is told by a friend that Juliet is dead. Upon hearing of her "death" he goes to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies, unable to face life without her. When Juliet's potion wears off, she awakens to find her dead lover. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and in their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.

Romeo & Juliet synopsis adapted from material at:  http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/romjul.html

The Real Thing by Sir Tom Stoppard

Synopsis

Stoppard explores the intersections of art and reality in this witty – at times hilarious – story about Henry, a successful playwright struggling with questions of how to know “the real thing” in love, in life, in art.  At the beginning of the play, Henry is married to Charlotte, an actress playing the lead in his current production.  Playing opposite Charlotte is Max, who is married to another actress, Annie.  We soon learn that Henry and Annie are having an affair, which leads to the dissolution of the two marriages and to Henry and Annie moving in together.  But is this new love “the real thing”?

Annie also happens to be involved in the Justice for Brodie Committee, a group supporting the cause of a young private who has been jailed for participating in an anti-missiles demonstration.  Annie remains devoted to the cause even after two years have passed (as they do, in the jump from the first act to the second). By this time Brodie is no longer of much interest to the media and the masses. Hoping to find a way to get out of jail, Brodie writes a play dramatizing the political protest – and Annie asks Henry to fix it up; the play is unpresentable as written ("half as long as Das Kapital and only twice as funny"), a horror Henry gleefully quotes.  

Brodie’s play, Annie’s interest in it, and Henry’s changed life circumstances, gnaw at Henry, who can't come up with too many words of his own at the moment. He is reduced to writing film scripts (to cover his alimony payments to Charlotte), not able to write "the real stuff."

Henry's relationship with Annie is also tested as another actor comes into the picture, young Billy, who is cast in a Glasgow performance of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore with Annie. Henry finally doctors up Brodie's play, learns important lessons from his and Charlotte’s daughter, Debbie, and from Annie’s involvement with Billy, and manages, pretty much, to get things right by the end.

What Henry does value is writing, and Stoppard uses him to proclaim his belief in the power of writing: "I don't think writers are sacred, but words are." Brodie's monstrous abuse of words tears him apart.  However, Henry also finds that he can not do everything he wants to with language: "I don't know how to write love," he complains, and much of the play is a discovery not so much of how to write love but how to live it. “Love and being loved is unliterary” – putting it almost out of Henry's reach. Generously Stoppard allows his playwright to ultimately recognize the real thing.

adapted in part from http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/stoppt/therealt.htm