Wherefore art Romeo and Juliet on Twitter?
Photo by BigTallGuy
Follow Romeo and Juliet as it is tweeted a line at a time on Twitter
Asked what Oscar Wilde would have made of Twitter, Stephen Fry has said: ‘He would have put the wit into it.’ We’ve changed the question slightly and pondered: ‘How would Shakespeare go tweeted?’ Here’s your ticket to having the whole of Romeo and Juliet tweeted at you, one line at a time. There are 15 accounts - one for each of the main characters - and thanks to a program Julian, one of our coders, has written, a line from the play is tweeted every 15 minutes. With about 3,000 lines in total, that means the action will unfold in just over a month.
You can follow as many or as few characters are you like. If you decide to follow Juliet, here’s a heads up: the balcony scene - which begins at line 799 - should commence at 23:15 on 13 March - which means that the most best-known line in all of drama (arguably) will be tweeted at 7:45 the following morning. (Though in our version - Twitter-friendly thing that it is - she will, of course, say: ‘Oh @romeo__ @romeo__, wherefore art thou…)
We’re not, sadly, the only people to have had this idea. The clever team at Florida Creatives - we now learn - have been tweeting ‘Twitter of the Shrew’ for a couple of weeks.
So we had to find a twist, which is that all the characters stalking Verona’s mean streets - including the Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrince - are kittens. Enjoy.
The Cast
How to follow the play
Register with Twitter or login to your account, then follow the Narrator and all the Narrator’s friends, and you will see the complete play appear in your feed.
Here’s the latest 25 lines from fair Verona
Subscribe to Times Labs RSS feed
20 Responses to “Wherefore art Romeo and Juliet on Twitter?”
Why? WHY?
Do blank verse one line at a time, and I imagine that many of your posts will contain the end of one sentence and the beginning of another, which will of course be totally incomprehensible. How long will the Queen Mab speech take? Best part of a day? Who could follow and comprehend that? Isn’t it just vandalism in the service of PR?
Wherefore art Romeo and Juliet on Twitter « Jim Henderson’s Blog - March 7, 2009
[...] you want to follow the play head over to the Times Lab Blog for [...]
Yes, why?
I have no idea, but it totally amazes my geeky side XD and so I have no other choice than following that!!!
O @Romeo__, @Romeo__, wherefore art though, @Romeo__? « Managing Uncertainty by Nicholas Davis - March 8, 2009
[...] This link deserves a post of its own. Some of the guys over at the TimesOnline are twittering the Bard - follow @romeo__ and his mates to get some Shakespeare delivered to you 140 characters at a time, [...]
STUPID!!!
This is crazy, and clever at the same time
Sir,
Verily, this is not the proper bosh, but a besmirching of lexical grandiloquence!
The Big T
Citizensheep » Wherefore art Romeo and Juliet on Twitter? - March 10, 2009
[...] Visit Wherefore art Romeo and Juliet on Twitter? [...]
Is this a good idea? Remember what happened to the Skittles website when they tried to get involved in social networking.
Expect lots of sarky comments..
Ridiculous! Can’t get access to it online or buy the book for Kindle or in Amazon or even a real book shop?
People who think this is stupid are missing the/a point.
@romeo, @romeo wherefore art thou @romeo? « Twentyninetwelve - March 15, 2009
[...] why I’m intrigued by the recent news that the people over at Times Online Labs Blog have decided to tweet lines from the Shakespearean [...]
O Romeo, Romeo! how dost thou Twitter! « Arora_LS_590 (Spring ‘09) - March 23, 2009
[...] http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/blog/2009/03/06/romeo-and-juliet-twitter/ [...]
First, this was a great idea for people who love the words of this play, and especially for students who are being introduced to Romeo & Juliet for the first time. Several of my 9th graders followed this play on Twitter, as did I, and enjoyed reading the lines in isolation. Each day I would ask them what was happening so far, and they enthusiastically shared. This was fascinating because the tweets were much further along than we were, and yet, my language learners could tell me what was happening in the play.
For all those that said this was a stupid, ridiculous idea - it’s just too bad that your imagination is so limited that you cannot imagine a use for this endeavor for any purpose other than your own. Imagine what it would be like for you to try other perspectives on for size - oh wait, that might be difficult with an imagination as tiny as yours.
By the way, Iam Kemmish, what seemed difficult to you: following and comprehending the Queen Mab speech, was not so difficult for my 9th graders.
when this question is asked juliet is asking why is romeo romeo? why cant he be someone else to where my family does not hate him.
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
Becca Caddy » @romeo, @romeo wherefore art thou @romeo? - September 7, 2009
[...] why I’m intrigued by the recent news that the people over at Times Online Labs Blog have decided to tweet lines from the Shakespearean [...]
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