A Fallout 76 theatre troupe are performing Romeo and Juliet live in-game tomorrow
Shakespeare in war
Rarely has the threat to bite your thumb at someone resulted in all-out nuclear armageddon, but one group of Fallout 76 players will prove the exception tomorrow when they perform William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet live in the game. The Wasteland Theatre Company has even built a stage they say is modelled after London’s Globe Theatre, renowned for its performances of the Bard’s plays. They’re a week late to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday, but I won’t judge because I can’t even add up properly in Freddos.
This new production doesn’t replicate Shakespeare’s work entirely, choosing to adapt elements to fit with the medium it’s being performed in. The warring clans of Montagues and Capulets are instead raiders and settlers, and the whole thing is only about an hour long. Romeo and Juliet isn’t the first play the Wasteland Theatre Company have produced for Fallout 76. They’ve already performed MacBeth, or the Scottish Play, and held a festival of Shakespearean sonnets.
It’s a bank holiday weekend coming up in the UK so a few of us here at RPS are considering attending the Wasteland Theatre Company’s latest performance. I’m always up for broadening my cultural horizons, machinima or otherwise. Let’s hope no super mutants attack during Act V and ruin the denouement. Fancy seeing any more stage classics brought to life in Fallout 76 or other games?
Fallout 76 is available on Steam, not the Bethesda Launcher. You can catch the performance of Romeo and Juliet on April 30th, at 9pm EDT/6pm PDT or May 1st at 2am BST on the Falloutfive0 Twitch channel. Enjoy the weekend – and support the stage!