Royal Shakespeare Company Performing Romeo And Juliet...On Twitter

Et tu, Royal Shakespeare Company? The venerable British theater company has just announced a new production of Romeo and Juliet that will be "performed" (typed?) on Twitter. And it's called "Such Tweet Sorrow". Seriously, Western Civilization, the end is nigh.-

The participating actors were all emailed scenes broken down minute by minute, and a twitter handle, through which they will I suppose emote a loose interpretation of the text.

Romeo is "an avid PS3-playing drum'n'bass lover". Juliet is obsessed with Robert Pattinson.  And Mercutio's Queen Mab speech will be revised to be all about Justin Bieber. Just kidding about that Bieber, but, seriously, could we butcher our literary heritage anymore if we tried? This isn't some young "new media" theater group made up of 19 year olds, this is the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY.

The Times of London says:

"The audience will be able to post their own thoughts on the characters' Twitter feeds and possibly become sounding boards for their dilemmas (as long as they don't give away details such as "she's not really dead.""

SPOILER ALERT: THEY BOTH DIE. Sorry for ruining the magic of your TWITTER Romeo and Juliet experience!

Charlotte Wakefield, the actress who plays Juliet, says of the role:

"I'm nearly 20 so I would type in a more sophisticated way, but a 15-year-old in 2010 will use a lot of text-speak."

Great. That is going to be great.

You can watch the drama unfold at @such_tweet, where they're updating with such gems as:

@such_tweet The tweeting balcony of 'such tweet sorrow' has a whole page on the evening standard tonight - ok time to eat my lunch now!!!

I'm sure, if Shakespeare had a twitter account, it would be of a similar vain. "Just finished thrd drft of R+J...ok time to eat lunch!"

The decline of Western Civilization, I'm telling you.

[Image via Twitter]