Just Juliet at Marjorie S Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA

Welcome to Verona, a city simmering with a generations-old feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. From her bedroom window, Juliet watches the senseless violence between the dueling houses yet remains trapped—bound by family expectations and pressured to marry the arrogant County Paris. When she crosses paths with Romeo, a Montague, an undeniable spark ignites between them. Their secret romance offers Juliet a taste of freedom and passion she’s never known—but in a world ruled by tradition and conflict, their romance comes at a dangerous cost. 

The play cleverly draws from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew  to shine light on the lack of female agency in classic love stories. Juliet’s best friend Katherine, once deemed the untameable shrew of Verona, is now trapped in an abusive marriage with Petruchio, a future Juliet adamantly refuses to face. Together, Juliet and Katherine navigate the patriarchal constraints around them that control their fates and the men that mean to control them. Blending timeless Shakespearean tales with a contemporary perspective, Annalise McCann’s Just Juliet is a refreshing story of love, defiance, and self-discovery that contrasts the worst love story in history with the greatest one ever told.