In Theatre Y’s most recent production of Juliet—the company’s third time putting up Hungarian-Romanian playwright András Visky’s familial autobiographical work in the past ten years—the theater itself is a womb.
In 1959, András Visky was barely two years old when he, along with his six siblings and his mother, Júlia (i.e. Juliet) were arrested and deported to the Romanian wilderness as part of the ruling Communist party’s infamous Bărăgan deportations. For six years, Júlia and her children faced constant threat of torture and execution before finally being released in 1964. Juliet is the story of that time in the Visky family’s history, as imagined through Júlia’s eyes, delivered in monologue.
While there are other themes that vie for dominance in Juliet, like faith and spousal love, “all of those things somehow came to a critical juncture in Juliet’s life when she thought she was going to have to watch her children die in front of her,” Lorraine says.
