“Did my heart love till now? Foreswear its sight. For I never saw true beauty ’til this night.”
“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?”
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun”


And so their love is sworn. No kisses crossed their lips last night, that would have been far too vivid to include into one of the greatest love stories of all time. 

The evening was filled with song and dance and a few of Shakespeare’s original lines thrown in, with the most dramatic scene playing out to the consternation of the kids in the audience.


Death, that hath sucked the honey of they breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
Romeo finds his beloved dead in the Capulet tomb, their love forsaken and without the Friar’s message reaching him Romeo lifts the poison to his lips and drinks to lay down next to his Juliet and die. Heartbroken. 
A gasp escapes the lips of the young audience (this is Romeo and Juliet 4 Kids) and a little shout radiates from the audience “No. Don’t. She is not dead,” but Romeo continues, he has not heard through his grief and the child that utters those words looks on in horror as he turns to his mom and utters, “but she’s not dead.”  

“I dreamt my lady came and found me dead”
Second’s later Juliet opens her eyes to find the devastating scene before her, her betrothed dead beside her. She realizes the mistake that has been made. Romeo did not know! Picking up the vile she finds it empty, knowing she cannot live without Romeo, she sees the dagger that was used to kill Paris with and picks it up.
(This is all very dramatic)  The little boy in front gasps again: “Oh no she is going to kill herself too“. He doesn’t seem to stop her though, perhaps he feels that it is justice that she sacrifices herself or perhaps just horrified at the events unfolding before him. (There are mutterings of disbelief amongst the young audience). She drives the knife into her side (gasps exude through the youngsters again) and dies next to her love, Romeo.
The kids in the audience are astounded (silence), Jess leans her little head onto my shoulder and sighs: “I wish it would end differently sometimes, they always kill themselves, I wish it could have a happy ending.”  Steve leans in on my other side: “Bet the outcome could have been different if they had mobiles, Facebook and Twitter.”
Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure whether to be sympathetic with Jess on my left or to giggle at his statement on my right. 
Imagine the outcome of all Shakespeare’s greatest writings…..depending of course on whether they had airtime and a signal.


Hmm, my imagination started to wonder:
Party at the Capulets house –
Tybaltsees Romeo and is wondering who this guy is? Using Augmented ID he captures his face and up comes all Romeo’s details. A Montague in HIS house, how dare he. 
Romeoin the meantime spots Juliet and using the same technology finds out who she is. He is shocked but in love.
Benvoliois checking out which pieces of art (via Google Goggles) are worth his while to nab. Maybe the little cupid statue in the garden?

Facebook Status updates: 
Tybalt– Romeo thou art a villain
Status is liked: 30 times by all the Capulets
Comments: 
1. Let’s surprise them in the Piazza tomorrow
2. I’m up for a duel
3. Time?
4. Count me in 
5. Romeo, what type of name is Romeo?
6. Did you unfriend him?


Romeo – Did my heart love ’til now? Forswear its sight. For I never saw true beauty ’til this night.
Status is liked 3 times by Benvolio, Balthasar and Abran
Comments:
1. Hey dude what happened to Rosaline?
2. Heart! You have no heart, this is Rosaline by the way!
3. Do you know where her bedroom is? I have a map of the house
4. What about Paris? He is going to kill you!
5. You are so done for Romeo, once those Capulets hear about this!

Tweets – 
Tybalt – @Sampson @Gregory Romeo villain has seen his last days #youaredead
@Knives – @Tybalt #youaredead: we supply knives http://knives.me/SF9hDqF2
@Sampson – @Tybalt @Gregory  tattoo day tomorrow #tattoosr4eva 
@Gregory – @Tybalt @Sampson u r such a wus Sam
@Sampson – @Tybalt @Gregory Greg u r dead
@Tybalt – @Sampson @Gregory tomorrow 10am Piazza 

Romeo – @Benvolio @Balthasar Juliet my sun #inlove
@Benvolio – @Romeo @Bathasar u get my FB message have map #maps4romeo
@Romeo – @Benvolio @Balthasar outside her window already 🙂
@Balthasar – @ Romeo @Benvolio u a stalker Romeo 
@Romeo – @Balthasar @Benvolio I c her check my pic pic.twitter.com/ghVrx7Sd


Move forward to the fight scene:
Twitters would relay the fight blow by blow, local media would be alerted to what was happening, the first photos and videos to go out would be via mobile upload and Romeo would would be tracked via his mobile because his “Find my iPhone” is on.
News channels would do in-depth interviews on the “Issues surrounding young love.” 
Juliet would be watching the fight blow by blow on Sky, BBC and CNN – would she still fall in love with Romeo? 

YouTube and Chill.com would post videos of the two star crossed lovers, the fight and inevitably their demise with millions of views and shares.


Pinterest would PIN: “My star crossed lover style”, “My weapons” and “My poison.”


While realtime conversations would start up on Namesake with experts on “The Psyche of today’s teenagers”.  
His trial would include all the media footage and he would be found guilty but would plead insanity due to his love for Juliet. He would be “banished” to a Psych hospital to live out the rest of his years.


Juliet and Romeo’s Demise
Juliet would inevitably still be in love with Romeo, as they have messaged each other throughout the course of events. But she has been promised to another (arranged marriage) and fakes her death by taking a special herb she has researched on the Internet. She knows it works as her friend researched it before (drug supplied by the Friar), and posted the results into her notes on her Google calendar (which is now available to everyone in her Google+ circle) via Google+ Search.


Juliet sends a message to Romeo: 9 tkn sleep herb meet me tomb 42 hrs MTLA fool them all ROFL LYWAMH.


But Romeo’s Mom forgot to buy more airtime and he has no connection, he doesn’t get the message.  Romeo gets the news of Juliet’s death via CNN, he is devastated by his loss. He “borrows” an iPad from a nurse, researches poisonous drugs, breaks into the dispensary and takes the bottle with him. Using the “Maps” app he finds his way to the Capulet tomb.


Friar Lawrence, who arrives moments after Romeo has taken the poison, watches as Juliet awakens. He sees her intentions and tries to stop her from taking her life with the knife that has just been used to kill Paris. She plunges it into her side dying next to her Romeo. Peter (the non to bright Capulet Servant) captures the scene on his mobile, selling the rights to News Agencies and the script to Dreamworks who change Shakespeare’s greatest love story to a happy Hollywood ending. Peter becomes wealthy beyond belief, drives a Ferrari and has blonde models on his arms. An autopsy however proves that if 911 had been called the tragedy would have had a happy ending. Amazon buy the rights to the book, change the original ending and every child will now never know the tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet.


The Montagues and Capulets set up a charity fund: Help Young Love. They get massive funding using social innovation on twitter to highlight the teens plight.


TV Execs start a reality show following Teens in Love and how they screw it all up.

Everyone lives happily ever after, except all the dead people of course (only in the original version).


“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo”


The End