Theatre company pulls production of Romeo and Juliet set in Nazi Germany
A theatre company has cancelled a production of Romeo and Juliet which was to be set in Nazi Germany.
The adaptation from London’s Icarus Theatre Collective was billed to present Romeo Montague as a member of the Hitler Youth, while Juliet Capulet would be a Jewish girl.
The description read: “In defiance of their entire society and in secrecy from their closest friends, hopeful young lives burn amidst a cataclysmic backdrop of impending war. Sun and moon shine down on star-crossed lovers as a Jewish girl falls for a member of Nazi Youth and the boy questions everything he was taught to believe.”
However, it transpired that an apparent error resulted in the casting notice omitting any mention of Jewish people, contrary to Director Max Lewendel’s initial draft.
Upon this coming to light, Mr Lewendel stated: “Our first draft had it, we don’t know how it went wrong. We are correcting that as soon as possible. That is absolutely not what was intended, and apologies to anyone that was understandably affected by this.”
When questioned on why an adaptation of the play involving Jews and Nazis was conceived of in the first place, Mr Lewendel said: “It’s the increasing fascism in the world today that has kind of become a trend in my work.
“I gained some comfort that the idea could be accepted when I saw things like ‘Jojo Rabbit’, and it shows this young boy – younger than Romeo – who’s been indoctrinated but doesn’t really understand what he’s been indoctrinated against.”
The Theatre then said that following the error, it was no longer working with the Casting Director alleged to have been responsible for the change in the draft.
However, it has since announced that it would now be dropping the project altogether. In a statement released on Twitter earlier today, it said: “We apologise and are deeply sorry for the offense and pain we caused to the Jewish community.
“As a company led by a Jewish Artistic Director who knows the pain of losing family in the Holocaust, we recognise that we’ve made mistakes that have resulted in the Jewish community and Jewish artists feeling excluded and being hurt.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We are glad to hear that an apology has been issued after it was revealed that a casting notice for a play about Jews and Nazis did not mention Jewish people.
“We still struggle to think how this production could be anything but tasteless. It is staggering that anyone would find this play about morally-equivalent feuding families to be an appropriate way to explore Nuremberg-era persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany.”
