Twitter doth protest too much

I’ve been a enormous fan of Shakespeare since I was 11 years old. His writing was like a puzzle to me and cracking the code was part of the enjoyment I got from reading his work. Yes, the engineer geek in me has been there since birth.

My favorite plays were Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and the absolute best, Much Ado About Nothing. As a young girl, I didn’t entirely understand why I loved these particular stories, but as an adult I can only conclude it’s because of the strong female roles Shakespeare wrote.  I mean, Beatrice was probably the first female character I can remember who matched, if not exceeded, her male counterpart’s witty quips and jabbing retorts, line for line.  Take even Juliet, some may think her just a silly love sick puppy. But I saw her another way. I saw her a young girl that was brave enough to be open with her heart and to trust in her love and sacrifice for that love, which I find Juliet very courageous.

So you can only image my pleasure when I found out that one of Shakespeare’s most notable plays, Romeo and Juliet, is being acted out on, of all things, Twitter.  (The sweet voices of angels and gentle trumpets rejoice). Just like ice cream cake, the world has joined together two wonderful things to create one mega amazing thing!

So here’s the run down. There are five characters (Juliet, the friar, the nurse, Tybalt, Mercrutio) and you follow them on Twitter. Their tweets ‘act’ out the play in modern English over the course of 5 weeks.  You can check out their website, Such Tweet Sorrow, to get more information.

I’ve only been following the tweets for a short period of time, but I’m hoping that modern day tweeting Juliet doesn’t play into the angsty, whiney teen role but rather is true to the young, strong, and determined young woman I have in my mind.

Thank you internet for being so awesome and thank you England for introducing me to my new favorite word, “nob”.

Loveth,

Jes