Estonian theater Kinoteater recently staged one of the most unusual versions of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” featuring heavy-duty vehicles as actors and a limestone quarry as the stage.
“Romula ja Julia” was a nearly wordless performance that relied on the movements and interactions of dozens of vehicles to convey the classic love story. Romeo was represented by a rally truck, while Juliet was a red Ford pickup truck, and the climactic duel between Tybalt and Mercutio was interpreted by two excavators dangling their metal buckets in front of each other. Designed as one big experiment about what it means to stage a Shakespearean classic today and whether artists can find new ways to do it, Romula ja Julia attracted international attention because of its unusual cast.
This time, the story’s characters are brought to life by excavators, a front-end loader, a concrete mixer, a fire truck, city buses and other large machinery, with a few smaller vehicles as well — for example, the role of Julia is played by a red Ford Ranger 4×4 pickup truck making its stage debut,” co-director Henrik Kalmet told ERR News.
Meanwhile, co-director Paavo Piik explained that the contrast between the powerful vehicles and the themes of love and poetry is central to the production’s experimental approach, as it tries to answer whether it is possible to deliver emotions with machines instead of actors.
“I would still say that even though it was cars, it felt really sweet and cute. Like when you had the scene where the cars were, you would assume, kissing, the energy was captured really well. The sweetness and the love,” one spectator told Reuters, while others described the show as touching, sincere, and emotional.
The unusual play was staged at an abandoned limestone quarry near Rummu and required ten drivers, two mechanics, a pyrotechnics expert, and an excavator operator.
