This Hamlet features many unusual interpretations, but with very little language changes. Therefore we include here a young bawdy woman who wakes up with the porter, hears the knocking first, and while trying to wake him up, reflects upon his prowess. The famous 'Knocking At the Gate' scene has archaic humor that can be difficult for modern audiences to get. If you wish, this role can be excised with no impact upon the story. There is a 'newsie' who keeps the audience informed-in street-corner news-hawker style-about late-breaking events. We structure our Funnery performances to give more stage time to up-and-coming young actors therefore, two characters who do not exist in the original Macbeth can be found here. It has several original quirks that you can choose to employ, or not. This version was performed in Craftsbury, Vermont in 2011, and with updated editing, will be performed at the 20th anniversary Northeast Kingdom Funnery in August, 2018. Our auditions yielded quite a few excellent young female actors therefore, we cast one of them as the Prince, and called her 'Princess.' The 15 year old girl who played her discovered new layers of feminine compassion and frustrated peacemaking-and feminine line (that extra 11th syllable) that generated some new shades of interpretation in her speeches. This script comes with that pre-scene you may ignore it, of course. With beautiful music playing, and the Friar shouting 'I can no longer stay!' and the hubbub around the arriving Prince, you have a very strong, unconventional beginning. The sight shocks her back into a flashback, which is the rest of the play. You have the option to begin with a quick tableau of Juliet in the tomb, awaking to find Romeo dead in her lap. The mainstage fall play at the New England Youth Theatre. The rest of the play is a flashback, but just for fun, Juliet's point of view begins the story. This version was performed at 'Get Thee to the Funnery' camp in Craftsbury Vermont. It starts with Juliet awaking in the tomb for a brief moment.

Romeo and juliet original script