These Violent Delights

Juliet wakes in The Apothecary surrounded by traces of death: daggers, spilt poison, Romeo’s body.

Rewind.

Dragged into hallucination, Juliet slips between memory and nightmare. Two families divided by pride: at the Capulet table, Paris is paraded as a suitor; Juliet refuses. At the Montague feast, they are invisible. Romeo, restless and constrained, is lured by Benvolio and his boyfriend Mercutio toward a night of abandon.

At The Apothecary – a queer club presided over by drag Sisters Laurence and Giovanna — Romeo arrives. Their eyes meet. Their love is sanctified.

Outside, Tybalt’s resentment erupts. Mercutio is wounded; Romeo kills Tybalt. Juliet agrees to court Paris while secretly planning to flee.
A pill. A message mistaken for a suicide note. Romeo rushes back with poison in hand.

We end where we began.

*Please note THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS contains a sequence of flashing lights which might affect customers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.