Click to play videoRio de Janeiro: In Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s largest slum, a curious crowd has gathered around an unusual act.
These narrow alley ways are often the site of gun fights between rival drug factions. But on this day the feuding families of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet rule the streets. Actress and director Joana Medeiros has adapted the tragedy in a language that has greater resonance to the people in the slum.
"Rocinha is under the command of one group of drug lords and neighboring Vidgal is ruled by another. So, like with Romeo and Juliet, this area has their own rivaling families, the Capuleto and Montesco. Juliette is pregnant because she has the same teenage sexuality, as the girls do here in the slums," says Medeiros, who is also the play’s producer.
Medeiros, who believes in the concept of "living theatre", says this unconventional approach works well in this unconventional setting. The themes of death and mortality inspired Medeiros to introduce other Shakespeare works, like Hamlet and Othello, to slums.
In Medeiros' version of Othello is an Afro-Brazilian man who has to face the prejudice of his wife's white family.
"Rocinha's challenges are of such magnitude that only through Shakespeare can we understand," says Medeiros.
Challenges are nothing new to Medeiros who has no sponsors or financial backing. And watching a play is a challenge for Rocinha's residents too: the ticket for Romeo and Juliet can buy a kilo of food—a stiff price to pay for an artistic staple.
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