Fair Rosaline

Mourning her mother and facing the final days before she’s sent to a nunnery, Rosaline Capulet vows to delight in earthly pleasures while she can. Seizing an opportunity for freedom, she sneaks into a dance at the home of her family’s rivals, the Montagues, and meets a silver-tongued suitor, Romeo. Though Romeo woos Rosaline with words of love, it soon becomes clear that his sweet speeches hide a sinister pattern of coercion and callousness. When he sets his sights on her younger Capulet cousin, Juliet, Rosaline knows she must end his exploits before it’s too late. Solomons (House of Gold) crafts an eye-opening “untelling” of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Narrator Sheila Atim’s theatrical delivery perfectly matches the thought-provoking Renaissance reimagining. Listeners will not want to miss the post-novel Q&A between Atim and Solomons, further deconstructing this “tragedy about adults who fail to protect children.”