Romeo and Juliet, the Skanky Remake

Lynae N.

April 18, 2010 - 7:12 AM

Saturday was my husband's and my cherished monthly date night. This month's date was a day gone wrong. First of all, we both had to get up early to fill out some paperwork and then my husband jumped into homework and I ran out the door to see clients and then to spend the day running around with a confused bride-to-be for wedding planning. My husband spent hour upon hour while he worked on his homework and I ran all over Eugene with a crowd of 18 year old girls. By the time we reconnected we were both exhausted and I had a mental list of all the work I needed to have done for my own classes that didn't happen.

But exhausted or not, we value date night and headed out for a quick dinner at a favorite Sushi restaurant and headed off to a student produced version of Romeo and Juliet which Brian needed to write a review on for a theater class. I love theater. I was a drama geek throughout high school and was unable to continue my involvement in college despite my interest. I was intrigued to see what a futuristic remake of Shakespeare's classic tragedy would look like.

In my mind, I had constructed all sorts of ideas about tacky tin-foil dresses and laser guns. Thank goodness I was wrong about this. The costuming and setting were all creative and fun. But I would have preferred tin-foil and laser guns to what we actually got in the play.

This version of Romeo and Juliet was the most sexualized play or movie I have seen. I think what I saw was as close to a strip club that I will ever get. Seeing sexual references and actions on television and movies is bad enough. I try to avoid them as much as possible and have walked out of movies and returned half-watched movies to the store before. Seeing live actors and actresses play out sex, groping, crude jokes and gestures, and inappropriate dancing only feet away is a completely different thing. Plays are very engaging; the characters feel real and are tangible unlike television. They are more impactful for this reason and I was even more taken aback by the way this play was portrayed.

Not only was I tired and stressed about all I needed to do, but now I was spending my date night being exposed to two hours of explicit sexual messages without the ability to leave since the play was a required part of my husband's class. This was not exactly what we had planned for a fun night out. To repair our disappointment, we bought some late night ice cream and ate it in bed while we watched an episode of The Office on our computer. That was silly and fun and a much more enjoyable way to spend our time together.

I have two hopes for future date nights this term. The first is that we are able to spend more undistracted time enjoying each other's company and that we have fun doing what we choose to do. I feel like these are reasonable and that we can make them happen. Dates are so important for us with such busy schedules. It is time to remember that we are more than study partners and parents; we are still one another's boyfriend and girlfriend. Without this foundation, nothing else works as well.