A revised "Romeo and Juliet" successfully premiered today at the Haymarket Theater with outspoken dialogue and hilarious fight and dance scenes.

While using the original Shakespearean dialogue, the play takes place in the sixties, creating a style which was easily engaging for the Paly audience.

Senior Elan Maier (Mercutio) started off the play, reciting the classic metabasis of the rivalry between the Capulets and Montagues and star-stricken love of Romeo and Juliet. Following his speech, a disastrous fight scene takes place between the two families foreshadowing the comedic yet tragic scenes to follow.

The first half of the play was irresistibly funny with ironic nuances and outward comedy. The audience was captivated by Maier’s performance, who jumped and stomped uncontrollably on stage.

Junior Ruthie Ryan (Juliet) and sophomore Alex Nee (Romeo) also engaged the audience through their dramatic soliloquies and love scenes. The two portrayed their characters well as Ryan displayed the giddy, naive daughter, while Nee took on the indecisive and love-stricken cousin.

"It was surreal," Ryan said. "We haven’t been rehearsing for that long [so] it was amazing we could pull it off."

The second half of the play took on a more serious tone, as senior Aaron Jones (Friar Lawrence) who in the beginning of the play made the audience laugh with his change in religious outfits, became the cause of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic end.

After Juliet drinks out of Friar Lawrence’s vial, making her appear to be dead, her family grieves over their assumed loss. Junior Nanor Balabanian (Nurse) and senior Kat Cravens (Lady Capulet) did an excellent job portraying their shock and grief over Juliet’s death. The two wept by Juliet’s bedside as family members from both the Capulets and Montagues tried to make sense of what had happened.

Balabanian thanks the audience for her outstanding performance.

"Having a good audience is like having a good show," Balabanian said.

The scenery was also very well done. With only a couple different settings, the time change between scenes went very fast. Of course the balcony was the main scene display which served well as both a new stage direction above as well as underneath.

Overall, the play ran very smoothly despite the difficult dialogue and intricate fight scenes the actors had to work with.

"I thought it went really well," senior Rachel Wolf (Benvolio) said. "I thought we were prepared after an intense week of rehearsals."

Audience members also seemed to enjoy the new twist to the Shakespearean play.

"Shakespeare is really hard to pull off and they did a good job doing it," senior Kelsey Coplin said.

The cast and crew still have many more shows to perform including this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults, and will be sold at the door.