Romeo and Juliet the play's "twin themes of love and the total breakdown of understanding between two generations" had contemporary relevance. Recent performances often set the play in the contemporary world. For example, in 1986, the Royal Shakespeare Company set the play in modern Verona. Switchblades replaced swords, feasts and balls became drug-laden rock parties, and Romeo committed suicide by hypodermic needle. In 1997, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre produced a version set in a typical suburban world. Romeo sneaks into the Capulet barbecue to meet Juliet, and Juliet discovers Tybalt's death while in class at school. The play is sometimes given a historical
Romeo and Juliet on screen non-Shakespearean story. "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" are the two plays which have most often been used in this way. Usually, Shakespeare's story has some parallel or resonance with the main plot. Films featuring characters performing scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" include the 1912 and 1982 film versions of Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby", "Cured Hams" (1927), "Drama De Luxe" (1927), "Broadway Fever" (1928), "Les amants de Vérone" (1949), "Marjorie Morningstar" (1958), "Carry on Teacher" (1959) "Shakespeare Wallah" (1965) and, significantly, "Shakespeare in Love" (1998). The 1941 film Playmates features bandleader Kay Kyser and Shakespearean actor John Barrymore playing themselves in