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 effect promising basis for a sound marriage. In Shakespeare's telling of the Romeo and Juliet story -- where the parents never actually learn about the love between the two main characters -- the intense feelings last a mere five days, and would hardly seem to have been the basis for a long and happy union. Romeo and Juliet effect The Romeo and Juliet effect is when of parental opposition to a relationship intensifies the romantic feelings of those in the relationship. The effect gets its name from the relationship between the protagonists in William Shakespeare's late 16th-century play, "Romeo and Juliet,"