How indie band THE FAMILY CREST is using their music to retell Shakespeare’s most-loved tragedy

After having debuted on the Chicago theatre scene earlier this year with My Name is Rachel Corrie, Jacaranda Collective is teaming up with Ryan Martin and The Den Theatre to co-produce and present Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. How do you sell the greatest love story ever told to a jaded generation who connects with one another by swiping left on a handheld screen? Audacious newcomer Jacaranda Collective’s solution is simple, but not easy: it’s truth. And how are they proposing to present a production of Romeo and Juliet rooted in truth? Answer: with an ensemble of actors and dancers performing in an immersive space accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by The Family Crest, featuring songs you already know and love, or will love after being introduced to the band.

Joining the ensemble of actors on stage is The Family Crest, NPR music favorites known for their Tiny Desk Concert. Woven with Shakespeare’s text will be hits off of their previous albums as well as songs currently unreleased from their 2020 album, The War Part II. They will be performing beloved songs such as “Beneath the Brine,” “Howl,” “It Keeps Us Dancing,” and more. Envision a silent movie of the 1920s. But instead of an old beloved neighbor playing the piano to a black and white film, it will be a driving, seven piece band (with cellos, violins, horns, and more) underscoring flesh and blood performers with orchestral, sweeping music. 

It is not a musical. Don’t let words like “live music” and “Romeo and Juliet” trick you into thinking it is a West Side Story knock off. Think of it as the next step in the growing number of 20 minute long epic music videos. Layered on top of that, audience members are treated as guests of a masquerade ball. So, if you’ve been keeping track, this is a Shakespearean play/concert/dance/immersive party. As you enter the space, you will be given a mask to don for the evening, and perhaps a Montague or a Capulet will pass a glass of champagne to you at some point.

The concept for a production like this first came to director and co-producer Sam Bianchini during the early 2010s. While performing a lot of Shakespeare at the time herself, Bianchini was also watching her friends rise to fame in the indie rock band The Family Crest (their Tiny Desk Concert has over 1 million views on Youtube!). The original concept and production played in Los Angeles on a much different scale than what is boiling in Chicago. The two-night production that ran in 2013 had five actors playing all of the roles alongside a live performance by The Family Crest in The Last Bookstore, the biggest independent bookstore in southern California. After that, it went to San Francisco in 2013, and has finally landed in Chicago in 2019.

With this production, Jacaranda Collective hopes to shed light on how, as a society, we’ve become jaded about love but are willing to hate and insult at the drop of a pin. Bianchini pointed out that Lord and Lady Capulet got married at the same age as Romeo and Juliet. The only seeming difference was that Romeo and Juliet took agency of their lives and wanted to get married, but Lord and Lady Capulet got married because it was ordered by their parents. Would Shakespeare have written the greatest tale of woe about two dumb kids? Would he have used his precious mind and time to create a flimsy soap-opera that he himself called “the most excellent and lamentable tragedy?” The question now is how, when we know the famous ending, do we reach that pinnacle? Jacaranda Collective’s answer is by selling all of the other moments: of brevity, truth, repulsion, and attraction. These moments are to be sold by all of the new elements: The Family Crest, dancers, actors, combat, and immersive moments of connection.

Julie Brannen, choreographer, spoke of dance as “the interplay between metaphor and reality. Dance is abstract – there are no words. We are in the emotion.” Working in the lobby space of the third floor of the Den Theatre, Brannen and De’jah Jervai (who will be taking the stage as a dancer) created the physical and visual representation of Romeo and Juliet’s wedding night consummation. Replaying “Make Me a Boat,” by The Family Crest, they tumbled from position to position in concord with the music, stopping and looking at each other as if to say “how did we get here?” and Brannen would map out the lyrical journey from point A to point B. Even in the choreography, Julie continued the exploration of moments like a scene, outlining the private, explosive, and pressure moments. As Brannen led the crafting of the dance, the two also crafted a language, with beguiling phrases such as “the burden of sex” and “cosmic wholeness.” 

Halie Robinson, who will be taking the stage as Juliet and off-stage as co-producer, spoke about the theme of violence that they will be highlighting. To Robinson, the show asks “what if we actually learned from our mistakes?” to break the cyclical nature of violence. Humanity seems to be forever stuck in a broken record that plays the songs “Violence,” “Hate,” and “Love” in that order. What if we made the conscious decision to break the cycle, not participate in the violence and hate, and instead only love?

At the foundation of this production, Jacaranda Collective isn’t looking to give something new to the audience or add innovation to this historic piece of art. They are attempting to reinstate a practice that the past century has slowly been neglecting: ceremony. Their “Romeo + Juliet with The Family Crest” is going to utilize live music, theatre, and art in an attempt to reawaken the practice of coming together as a community to sweep away the dusty cobwebs of bitterness. This ceremony of human connection will hopefully underpin their message of the show that, while it might seem ridiculous to love another for insignificant reasons, it is far worse to hate and divide ourselves for insignificant reasons as well. 

“The Family Crest in Romeo + Juliet: A Spectacular Retelling of The World’s Greatest Love Story” will be playing November 7 – 9, 2019 at The Den Theatre (1331 N Milwaukee Ave). Doors open at 9 pm, and the performance begins at 10 pm. Tickets are available at https://www.gogetromeo.com. 

Sophie Vitello