A new production of 'Romeo & Juliet' combines old tradition and progressive updates.

There have been many interpretations and interpolations of Romeo & Juliet, with the title characters portrayed as African-American and Chinese, as senior citizens in a care home, as warring garden gnomes. Maybe the most famous is as rival gangs in West Side Story; the weirdest: as zombie and non-zombie in 2013 movie Warm Bodies.

The universal dynamic is that love transcends tradition, divisions and social constructs. Justin Matthew Gordon, the director of Monterey Peninsula College Theatre Company’s new production of Romeo & Juliet, says that the point of theater is to to “provoke yet unite an audience through a cathartic experience.”

So he’s going with gender in the list of non-traditional casting choices. His version of Romeo & Juliet prominently features LGBTQ+ and nonbinary casting, including both leads who are biologically female.

And how does that change the play?

“It doesn’t,” Gordon responds by email. “These roles – if we are talking ‘original practices’ – were traditionally played by two men. After all, in 1596 when the play was likely first performed, women were not allowed on the stage, which meant all female roles were played by men wardrobed and performing as female.”

But he also wanted LGBTQ youth to see themselves on the stage, and to realize that love, passion and self-determination belong to them too. He says he hasn’t changed any text to accommodate the gender switch – Romeo is played (by Anjoli Johnson) as a male and Juliet (Kiana Sorenson) as a female, per Shakespeare’s script – but that he has adjusted the structure to intensify the central action.

The setting and wardrobe is contemporary, and the set reflects a Frank Lloyd Wright influence. But there are homages to Elizabethan tradition in a central upstage entrance and a balcony, and fights with rapiers and daggers. Gordon studied classical directing and acting at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, and combat training at the British Academy of Stage Combat and the Society of American Fight Directors – all of which suggest an exciting production.

MPC’s version is recommended for those high school age or older. Beyond that, Gordon hopes it will appeal to everyone, including those who might have pause about the casting. 

In the 19th century, according to the Royal Shakespeare Company, it was uncontroversial for women to play Romeo alongside a woman playing Juliet. And it’s not unheard of for high school productions to have a male play Juliet and a female play Romeo. After all, Gordon says, it’s acting.  

“I often forget that I am watching two women—I am merely watching Romeo and Juliet," he says. "And to me, that's truly beautiful.”

ROMEO & JULIET runs 7:30pm Thu-Sat, 2pm Sun (post-performance talkbacks Feb. 24 and March 3), Feb. 21-March 10. Morgan Stock Stage, Monterey Peninsula College, 980 Fremont St., Monterey. $15-$25; $3/parking. 646-4213, mpctheatre.com