Life is a beautiful theater, and there's a witch in the room

RetJ sideblog

[retjcetera]

A multi-RetJ Bencutio vid to "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals, with RetJ 2010, ResJ, the Toho Black version, and ReG (partial alt cast). It can be read romantically or platonically.

[morieli]

enlighten more on your georgian retj please dawg

რომეო და ჯულიეტა⁉️⁉️⁉️

One of my favorite most immediate things about RdaJ which kind of inspired the entire thing is Le Bal, which would EASILY be based off the 2010 revival, there’s a Georgian dance called the Khanjluri where the dancers are all dressed in red and throw daggers, and one of the most famous Georgian dance schools has posted a performance of it (clip below) that reminded me of Le Bal

I am also very torn how much Georgian dance I’d hypothetically WANT in RdaJ because typically it’s very strict and rigid and doesn’t allow much fluidity and freedom, at least none that I’ve seen, but Le Bal would definitely include elements of the Khanjluri, and Le Duel would include elements of the Khevsuruli, which kind of encapsulates the entirety of Romeo and Juliet; the dance traditionally starts with a man and a woman flirting, then another man enters and starts a fight with the other, and it descends into battle from there, the fighting ends with a woman (I imagine she would be death in this scenario) entering the stage and throwing her veil.

The gif below is a little clip from a Khevsuruli, and the main issue with it is that it’s super complicated and you have to be really good to do it, obviously in theatre no real swords or shields would be used but the sentiment is certainly there and it’s far more an ensemble thing than it is a main cast thing

When it comes to translating Romeo et Juliette into Georgian it gets difficult because my grasp on Georgian isn’t 100% and Georgian is an inherently clunky language at times, as pretty as it looks (კბილებით = k’bilebit meaning “with teeth” or ტკივილგამაყუჩებელი = t’k’ivilgamayuchebeli meaning “painkillers”) it’s really difficult to work with, I haven’t even been able to find a full translation of Romeo and Juliet in Georgian; also, Georgian slang is really difficult to learn if your grasp on the language isn’t good, which makes it hard to read and translate, along with some words simply not existing in English.

The translation I have that I’m proudest of is for C’est Le Jour, though it’s a bit clunky and should be edited:

“Mourir de jalousie / sidzulvilit davighup’ebi

C'est mourir d'amour aussi / siq’varulis khelit movk’vdebi

Ne me parlez pas d'honneur / tsut’isopeli gardatsvalebamde

C'est par amour que les hommes meurent / chailuris ts’q’als ar davlev”

MEANING:

“I will perish of hatred, (but) I will die by the hand of love. Life unto death*, I will not die and be forgotten**”

* the actual translation is more so something like “The world of a minute (life) changes/twists/turns” as the verb used for “to die” is essentially saying change/twist/turn/shift/etc. and the word for life is translated to “the world of a minute,” it’s just those words that don’t exist in English.

** “chailuris ts’q’als ar davlev” is a regional Georgian phrase so I’m apprehensive about using it but I like the way it sounds better than just having a literal translation, the chailuri is a river in Georgia, where during some ethnic wars in the earlier years of the country, people would be kidnapped and taken across the river, and then they were as good as dead, so it became a phrase, “to drink the water of the chailuri” which means to disappear and be forgotten shortly afterward

Anyways, other little details include:

- Tybalt’s dagger is a Khanjali! I draw him with one anyways

- In my mind, during Verone, the Capulets would be more related to Georgian mountain dances, such as the Kazbeguri

- I would love to bastardize the musical a little bit and include “Shen Khar Venakhi” in Aimer some how

Random costume design inspiration from traditional Georgian theatre that I would love btw

Yap over…… RdaJ please be real please I’ll do anything

[other-blog-for-other-stuff]

Dude imagine Tybalt doing the Khanjluri dance during c’est le jour

Like it’s his way of (in his mind) threatening Romeo and being like “try me, I will mess you up no matter what”

Also this would be his main fit (he’d look epic. Also it lowkey reminds me of Vienna tybalt’s jacket

he’d add this during le bal

And not Tybalt but Juliet would be SLAYING with this fit

And Tybalt would obviously never wear blue because those are Montague colors.

[theunpossible]

Guys I need a list of retj productions to watch , recommend me the ones with your favorite benvolios

[retjcetera]

My favorite is Riccardo Maccaferri from the Italian version.

All of the Toho Benvolios are excellent and it's hard to choose between them, so I would probably choose which version to watch based on the other characters.

Vadim Listratov from non-feathery Russian RetJ is really good, though his hair distresses me above all others'.

[talvenhenki]

Happened this week: I discover the song Les Rois du Monde which, I realise, is the original version of a certain weird Russian music video I happened to find years ago which then results in me finding out about the musical called Romeo et Juliette and me being me, I go to watch some youtube videos of the musical

The result: I now have a favourite character and otp from the musical (specifically the 2010 revival version), I have started reading the original play in Finnish and started rewatching the anime

Whoops?

[retjcetera]

This is one of the greatest music videos I've ever seen.

[prettynerdieworks]

what in the name of high school production choreography is this

[acting-pterygii]

TW // suic*de ideation

been thinking about post canon benvolio lately, he’s probably shit at coping

shoutout to everybody on retj tumblr for their cyrilvolio headcanons!! his entire design rests squarely on your shoulders <3 only thing i have to add is that i hc mercutio’s bday to be in march and benvolio’s to be in august and mercutio NEVER stops bragging about being five months older until he like. dies. so that’s the first panel ^u^

[retjcetera]

YouTube has finally decided that my videos (which will probably be watched by very few people) are not a threat! If anyone would like to watch them there rather than on Tumblr, my channel is here and I will continue to upload them.

I also made a RetJ fan content playlist with pretty much all of the edits and animatics I've found, since they can be hard to dig up. If someone's channel had a lot of RetJ content, I stuck with the videos which seemed better to me, so it's worth checking the individual channels whose videos you like because they might have others. The playlist is in no particular order, at least at the moment.

[retjcetera]

A ResJ vid to "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas

[retjcetera]

"Youngblood" by 5 Seconds of Summer fits Mercutio's death in the 2010 version extremely well.

This isn't really an edit because apart from two cuts to black near the start, it's an entirely continuous sequence with no speed changes or anything. I might make a proper edit to it, but the serendipitous overlap is probably the best part.

[lesespoirsgrands]

My murderous baby

(I did not record this, I honorably stole it from VK)

[coffeefromvoid]

OK so here is a costume analysis? of Mark Seibert’s Tybalt, specifically his party costume.

Here are some pictures so its in your mind.

Right.

So the first thing that i notice is his bodice, it is mimicking stays.

Specifically Tudor/Elizabethan stays. Which make sense, Romeo and Juliet was written in that era.

But the reason these stays jump out at me is that it’s typically a garment worn by women underneath their dresses, it’s a support garment. The choice of

1. making the costume look like Elizabethan stays are very intentional because if they wanted to reference Tudor fashion (which is what they wanted as the skirts of the ensemble also resemble the fashion of the time, and some ensamble members even have feathers mimicking a tudor ruff) they could have gendered the costumes more by making the men wear doublets and not stays. But they didn’t

Because

2. It’s not just Tybalt that wears something like this, its almost all the male characters that wear some corset esque structured bodice in the party scene

Crunchy Merutio as reference, but the reason i noticed Tybalt’s costume the most as basically a wild mix of modern avant garde fashion and historical is because his costume during the capulet party seems the most bare.

It feels way way way less extra than Mercutio’s or Benvolio’s, and even the background ensamble is so fancy that Tybalt looks out of place when he starts to sing „Ich bin schuldlos“

The bare looking barely decorated pants make the costume look less full, and by extension force the viewer to look at the more detailed part of the costume, aka: the stays technically one is looking at the busy arms but, you soon notice it’s just a repeating pattern so you look at the stays

As i said he looks out of place, the stays make him look vulnerable, not because they are typically women’s clothing, but because they are traditionally undergarments and his being so plain make that very clear.

I can’t describe it well but when you watch the scene you’ll definitely know what i mean.

Here are some crisper images

This vulnerability that is seen in this costume is very unexpected from Tybalt, to paraphrase Mark himself (from the making of), “Tybalt is a very proud person […] And that jacket [his red jacket outside of the party] supports that. […] It’s like bullfighter’s jacket.”

This statement directly contradicts everything we learn in the party scene, we know this, but it’s just Aaa

I am sooooo normal about Tybalt you guys. So normal.

[retjcetera]

RetJ 2010 Incorrect Quote

Benvolio: All right, Mercutio. Me, Romeo, and Tybalt. Kiss, marry, kill. Mercutio: Kiss...Tybalt. Kill...also Tybalt. Marry...you. Benvolio: You know, since you're already flagrantly disregarding the rules, why not say Tybalt for all three? Mercutio: Well, after killing him, he'd be a nuisance to live with.

[retjcetera]

"Last Christmas" in Verona

And now, presenting...a RetJ 2010 crack vid to "Last Christmas!" by WHAM! which absolutely should not be taken seriously (and can also be watched here on YouTube), featuring as many relationships as I could fit in four and a half minutes while retaining some semblance of sense. Here is a description of what I think happened in its ludicrously complicated ship web:

Mercutio is in a relationship with one of the Montague dancers when she catches him hitting on another Montague dancer (who spurns his advances). The first dancer breaks up with him and starts dating a Capulet dancer, leaving Mercutio single (for a moment).

Benvolio tries to confess his love to Mercutio, who is into Tybalt and doesn't realize that Benvolio is in love with him, then feels betrayed when he sees Mercutio and Tybalt together. Morte's boyfriend, Friar Lawrence, recently dumped her to become a monk. Mercutio sees his old flame Tybalt, who he still has feelings for, but Tybalt claims not to recognize him, and he consoles himself by having a brief fling with Morte, then leaving her for Romeo. Mutually heartbroken, Benvolio and Morte get together, but it doesn't last.

Meanwhile, Romeo falls in love with Juliet, who won't kiss him after she finds out that he's in a relationship, so he dumps Mercutio. Mercutio and Tybalt get back together, and Benvolio thinks back gloomily on Mercutio's betrayal.

Mercutio and Tybalt get in a fight and Tybalt stabs him, which in Mercutio's mind ends the relationship. At long last, Mercutio realizes that while Tybalt was toxic, Benvolio had loved him all along, and he finally reciprocates Benvolio's advances. Tybalt is now heartbroken over Mercutio and rebounds with a guy from the ensemble, and Morte rebounds from Benvolio with Romeo. (Whether Juliet rejected him or whether Romeo is two-timing them is unclear).

[retjcetera]

A multi-RetJ Tycutio edit to "Never Really Over" by Katy Perry

[cto10121]

Idaho RetJ: Review and Commentary

You’ve heard of and tried vainly to forget London RetJ. Now get ready for and try to forget *checks notes* Idaho RetJ, apparently, coming January 2023. The battle of the English RetJs has begun. Who will win? You decide.

*rap artist intro voice* Hey, you! Yeah…Uh…all right…It’s happenin’ tonight, man…you in Verona now…you in V-town…uh-huh…let’s go—

(Also no choosing left or choosing right…the sides are literally represented by blue and red. Embrace the allegory, Idaho RetJ. Fifty points from Gryffindor.)

Idaho Tybalt could write Emily Dickinson, but Emily Dickinson could never—

*Kings of the Hill voice* Well, yo man I tell you what, man, we may play at freakin’ kings of the world, but I reckon we ain’t diddly squat, man, the kings of nada, yo capische?

Idaho Death is an actual kinky ho. It’s canon. #relatable

Tybalt is just too rattled for this. Sorry, he’s not made that way. But really, dying for jealousy is dying for love too, believe me, guys!!!!

Aaaaaaaaand with that Idaho Tybalt is 100000x better than London Tybalt.

It was the fickle winds of chance that bedeviled the romance all along. Of course! Why didn’t we see it?

Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio. Kings of the world or just dinky roosters? You decide.

Tag yourself, I’m “opus of my early manhood.” I gave her life, she made mine whole hits so hard though ngl

So far Idaho Death definitely has appeal, crawling into people’s beds…(Also Idaho RetJ keeping the Nurse’s part ouch ouch ouch)

[imyselfamstrange]

Tybalt at the masquerade ball in Rómeó és Júlia (I don’t think he had a super fun time)

bonus: Mercutio giving him the double finger in the last gif

[lobotomist-at-tabs]

which romeo & juliet character are you?

totally normal and chill uquiz that i definitely didn't make in a 1AM fever dream

good luck <3 possible answers: romeo, juliet, mercutio, tybalt, benvolio

feel free to reply / rb with results !!