Mark Roth, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

April 12, 2014

Let’s say you were going to see William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” for the first time, and you didn’t know the plot and were afraid you’d never make sense of all that Elizabethan language.

That’s where Alan Irvine steps in.

Mr. Irvine, a professional storyteller, was one of the featured performers at Saturday’s 450th Birthday Bash for the Bard, put on by Hope Academy of Music and Art in East Liberty Presbyterian Church.

Here’s how he opens his 6-minute-17-second synopsis of “Romeo and Juliet”:

“In the city of Verona, Italy, two families: Montagues, Capulets. Hated each other. Ladies and men, walking down the street. ‘Hey you! Montague! Capulet! Montague! Capulet!’ Them’s fighting words. Out comes the swords; there’s fighting in the street.”

And, after the lovers have taken their own lives — it is a tragedy, after all — here’s how he wraps it up:

“Then, in comes everyone else — they just happen to be hanging around outside the tomb. ‘Oh, no, look what happened. This is all our fault. In our children’s memory, we must make peace and be friends forever and ever.’ So they all make peace, live happily ever after, except for Mercutio and Tybault, Romeo and Juliet, who are all dead.” […continued]

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