I defy you, stars!

So much of Romeo & Juliet turns on predestination — from the spoiler-spilling prologue onwards, we know that what happens before us onstage is beyond any human control or intervention. But the script laid out for these two young lovers has, in its turn, underwritten so much of our culture’s understanding of romance. Though Juliet herself becomes a sparky co-participant, something about Romeo’s come-on at the Capulet party has always given me an icky feeling — he makes some dodgy references to skin colour, touches her, tells her not to move, and doesn’t seem particularly interested in taking no for an answer. It’s a situation familiar in bars and nightclubs all across the world, and just like the star-crossed fortunes of the play, it’s doomed to play itself out over and over. 

‘What if it didn’t have to be like that?’ was the question with which my multiple-choice game began. Over the course of ‘I defy you, stars!’ you play Juliet, and you make choices that Shakespeare’s script never offers her. You can choose to play along with the familiar love-story, or you can flip the script. Up to a certain point, Romeo carries on with his entreaties regardless, but there might be a better future out there for him, too.