South Philly Review

Share this Story:

It’s been said every story has been told. Matt Pfeiffer does not agree.

The Montrose-and-Ninth-streets resident took it as a challenge to retell what may be the most popular story of all time.

“The story first started to emerge [centuries ago] and it’s made its way to us here now. It means generations and generations of human beings have decided that this story is worth telling,” “Romeo and Juliet” director Pfeiffer said. “It holds hate to its consequences.”

Though shying from the initial proposal issued him by the Arden Theater’s producing artistic director Terry Nolen because he was never captivated by productions of the star-crossed lovers, Pfeiffer reread the timeless script and a new opportunity presented itself.

“I had never seen it work in a compelling way. When I went back and read it — and I hadn’t read it in maybe 10 years — I rediscovered how great it was,” Pfeiffer said. “There were a lot of things I’d never heard in the performances I’d seen. So I went back and said I’d be interested in doing it.

“I wanted to strip it down and focus on the actors and the story.”

His modern interpretation of the play speculated to have been written in the late 1500s is at the Arden Theatre, 40 N. Second St., through April 11. Approaching the work the way he believes Shakespeare’s company would have, Pfeiffer is using a contemporary setting and story-telling technique to amplify the relevance of its meaning.

“[Shakespeare’s Company] would have done it on their stage and would have done it with their costumes,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s [Shakespeare’s] Verona; he made up this Verona. Everything he says about this culture and these people I could determine based on what I think Shakespeare invented.”

Borrowing the great playwright’s methodology, Pfeiffer believes he’s concocted a 21st Century version of what Shakespeare would have staged. To do so, Pfeiffer used what was available to the production to organically shape the direction, look and feel — akin to how Shakespeare’s Company would have allowed Southwark, London’s, Globe Theatre and popular fashion to become an integral part of its staging.

“I wanted the concept and the clothing and setting to dictate everything. I wanted the story to dictate our choices,” Pfeiffer said.

Further modernizing the script, Pfeiffer looked to contemporary storytelling methods to appeal to young audiences.

“I used intercutting, borrowing from the filmic style,” Pfeiffer said of scenes that unfold side-by-side on a split stage. “I’ll take two of Shakespeare’s scenes that happen sequentially and have them intercut with each other.

“Younger audiences, it’s their aesthetic. I was keeping in line with that kind of pace.”

With the performance schedule filled with student matinees sold to capacity, Pfeiffer believes his key demographic is getting the picture — and perhaps learning a whole new way to interpret a hallowed text.

“In the Second Act you can hear a pin drop in the theater. They get really invested by that point,” Pfeiffer, who chose hand knives and collapsible police batons as the show’s weapons, said. “It feels like people are really staying with it.”

Growing up in the Northeast, Pfeiffer moved into his Italian Market home five-and-a-half years ago.

“We love our neighborhood. It’s a great neighborhood right off the Italian Market,” Pfeiffer, who shares his home with wife Kim, said. “One of the great things for me is that I can walk anywhere I want to be.”

One of those places is his resident company, Theater Exile, headquartered for just over a year at 1340 S. 13th St.