Such Tweet Sorrow

Mudlark worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company to develop a new platform to explore Shakespeare’s place in a culture of cross-platform media consumption.

After a series of workshops with the RSC, we worked with the organisation to recognise the great potential for extending its work into digital platforms, enabling the company to reach out to a generation of young people who have grown up using technology intuitively as part of their everyday lives.

Such Tweet Sorrow was a five-week long retelling of Romeo & Juliet played out on Twitter and other online social platforms, reaching a global audience of thousands and recieving coverage all over the world. Real actors played the star-crossed lovers and their four cohorts Tybalt, Mercutio, Lawrence Friar, and ‘Nurse’ Jess.

The audience were able to engage with the characters via ‘@’ messaging them on Twitter, or finding them elsewhere on the web. For example, Romeo’s XBox gamertag was discovered and people queued to speak to him (or shoot him in a Call of Duty deathmatch).

Where this Twitter-play differed from other similar attempts at using the micro-blogging medium as a storytelling platform was in its narrative structure. Celebrated online storyteller Tim Wright and playwright Bethan Marlow collaborated on a story ‘grid’ where the character’s lives were mapped out over the five weeks. There was no direct use of Shakespeare’s words. No “wherefore art thou @romeo”. The characters tweeted as normal people would do. Juliet’s tweets were quick and often, her elder sister ‘Nurse’ Jess’ more mature and reflective.

Provocative and experimental, the production was a huge success. Mudlark are currently developing new ideas for cross-media storytelling.

Such Tweet Sorrow was a Mudlark production made possible by Channel 4 and The Royal Shakespeare Company.

Links:

BBC Coverage
The Guardian
Channel 4