Educational Media Reviews Online

A Taste of Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet provides a very basic look at key scenes from William Shakespeare's play. Although the summary on the video case raises many interesting points about the drama and its relationship to the youth and society of today, the program itself does little to expand upon these ideas. The straightforward performances of selected scenes are interspersed with very little commentary.

Although, with few exceptions, the performances are on a student production level, the dialogue is executed clearly, offering a very understandable version of Shakespeare's language. This and the use of appropriately young, seemingly inexperienced actors may increase the accessibility of this play to younger viewers.

The visual and audio production qualities are very good. Scenes and sets are convincing, and sometimes a little unconventional (contemporary traffic passes by during the final battle between Romeo and Tybalt).

Given the basic nature of the production, lack of explanatory commentary throughout the program, and less than "Shakespearean" performances, I would hesitate to recommend this program for libraries in general. However, the video case indicates this program is distributed with a Teacher's Guide, and this could make a difference in how the video is applied. Junior and senior high school students may find this type of performance more accessible and palatable to them, particularly as they would probably be studying the play from a more general perspective.