S1E9: Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

February is Valentine’s month, and Hannah and I sit down to re-evaluateWilliam Shakespeare’s classic Romeo & Juliet, a story eternal to ninth-grade English. It’s one of those texts that are ubiquitous in high school English. Everyone everywhere reads R&J, and somewhere in our collective consciousness, the two teens seem to represent the epitome of romantic love. But Shakespeare warns us from the prologue: this is a tragedy, not a roadmap for romance! So is R&J still relevant, or can we do better? This week we’re here not to dismiss Shakespeare, and not to blindly defend tradition, but to ask whether the tragedy of the Montagues and Capulets still belongs at center stage.Second Stage is a Free Zone Radio production. You can find it and our other podcast, With Honors on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.Also, throw some love at our brotherly podcast with Coach Haston, A Deadman’s Books, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as Haston Curation.This episode’s music features “Caught in the Middle” by Amarent and “Flea Bop” by Mr. Smith, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit secondstagepodcast.substack.com