Star-Crossed Lovers/ Romeo und Julia

In the organizer's words:

When and why did this enmity between the Montagues and Capulets actually begin? And why has it been passed on for generations? How does enmity arise in the first place? On the basis of which resentments and attributions are we marginalized or do we marginalize others, and how can hatred be overcome?
Based on Shakespeare's world-famous tragedy about the boundary-breaking love of Romeo and Juliet, which is able to break through the age-old enmity of parents and grandparents' generations, the production team is developing a new version of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" together with young people from Essen and the acting ensemble. The focus is on the hatred between the families that determines the present and future of the young characters in the play. They are barely older than 14 and in the end are the victims of a story with a catastrophic outcome. Where do we have to start to tell the story? And which of the stories is the right one, which comes closest to the truth?

"Star-Crossed Lovers" is a long-term participatory project. Since September 2023, professional artists from Schauspiel Essen have been working at various schools in Essen (including in cooperation with Gesamtschule Nord in Essen-Vogelheim) and involving pupils in artistic processes in a variety of ways. Musician and initiator of the production Torsten Kindermann and author Akın Emanuel Şipal, this season's artist in residence at Schauspiel Essen, were also involved in the workshops. In the production, schoolchildren and young people from the city perform together with ensemble actors from the theater on the big stage in the Grillo Theater.