Shakespeare in the Park

SYNOPSIS
The Montagues and the Capulets are two families devoted to a long-standing feud. Romeo, a Montague, decides to go masked, along with his friends, to a ball hosted by his family's enemies in order to see the young woman who has rejected his advances. Once there, he falls completely in love with Juliet, the young Capulet daughter. Later that night at Juliet's house, she confesses her love for him. Furtively, Friar Lawrence marries the two lovers. The next morning Capulet tells her that he has arranged a marriage with Paris, a young noble. Meanwhile, a fight breaks out between Tybalt, a Capulet and Romeo's close friend, Mercutio. When Romeo attempts to break up the combat, Mercutio is fatally stabbed. Knowing that the Prince has expressly forbid fighting in Verona's streets, and declared that death would be the penalty for violating that edict, Romeo flees to Mantua, guided by Friar Lawrence, who hopes to heal the wounds and ultimately unite the lovers. On the night before her purported marriage to Paris, again led by the Friar, Juliet takes an opiate to simulate death and is borne to the Capulet tomb. Romeo, wrongly told that she is dead, purchases a poison and returns to view her body, killing himself at her side. Juliet awakens to find her lover dead and stabs herself to join him in death.