by Pamela Herrington
Daily Lobo
"Fundamentals," a play created by UNM students based on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," opens tonight at the Theatre X.
Daniel Sonnenberg, a UNM student, conceived the idea for "Fundamentals" during the summer and for the past few months, Sonnenberg worked with director Rafael Gallegos and the cast to complete the script.
The play focuses on political problems by blending current issues with the story of Rami and Julia, characters based on Romeo and Juliet.
The cast features Terrence Bingham, Hope Delarue, Brian Fejer, Alexander Lane, Rebecca Navarro, Jennifer Stephenson, Jessica Weber, Justin A. Young and Shannon Zeller.
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In this play, Rami (Lane) is Palestinian. He tries to suppress the hatred of Jews by his people and especially by his friend Mohammed (Fejer). Julia (Stephenson) is a Jewish woman. Her hopes for peace between Israel and Palestine are continuously crushed by the anger of her people, particularly her cousin Abraham (Young).
Julia and Rami fall in love, and much like Romeo and Juliet, are unable to be together.
Sonnenberg said that when he traveled to Spain, he was inspired by a peaceful Jewish and Arab community. Because of this experience, he wanted to create a play that focused on current political issues.
Sonnenberg wrote the script for Rami and Julia, and the cast added various scenes that were inspired by newspaper articles, television and stories. These scenes include comical newscasts, suicide bombings, war demonstrations and fighting.
The group uses some aspects that are typical of Shakespearean dialogue and there are popular Shakespearean lines such as "A plague on both your houses" and "I am fortunes fool." Young said that he chose to keep Shakespeare's words in this script when he wanted to give his actions strength.
There are also rhyming couplets in some of the dialogue. However, the group uses contemporary language in order to reach a mainstream audience. Words like "awesome" and "cool" are also used in the script.
Some of these language choices are comical.
"Why do you call with your coos and not with your cell phone?" Julia says.
There are several moving moments in the show and Stephenson plays guitar and sings about encouraging people to end their hatred.
Navarro designed dance pieces that are a crucial part of the script and are interpretive and beautiful.
"Fu ndamentals" stays true to Shakespeare's tragedy in the sense that Rami and Julia are "star-crossed lovers," but the cast gives the show a unique ending that comments on the futility of peace between Palestine and Israel.
The play opens tonight and runs through Sept. 27. It starts at 7:30 p.m. This week's performances are Sept. 17-20 and next week's are Sept. 24- 27. Tickets are $7 for general admission and $5 for students.
