Romeo and Juliet gets an LGBTQIA+ YA makeover in Caleb Roehrig’s Teach the Torches to Burn. The premise is irresistible. Who doesn’t love a classical retelling that features two boys finding love against the odds? Roehrig’s treatment of the star-crossed tale is a gentler version of the oft-reworked play that stays true to its emphatic optimism about the uncompromising power of young love.
Roehrig chose to not wander far from the Shakespearean canon in many ways, which on one hand activates the reader’s engagement with familiar characters, and on the other, introduces some challenges with mixing contemporary and fourteenth century themes. The original players are present and accounted for. The bitterly opposed Montague and Capulet patriarchs. Vengeful Tybalt. Convivial Benvolio. Sentimental Friar Laurence who shelters the young lovers from the fray, and the stalwart Prince of Verona who doles out equal blame and punishment to the warring families. Roehrig focuses on tweaks to the story that offer resonance to today’s young LGBTQIA+ audience.
Romeo is the first person point-of-view narrator, and he’s an alienated seventeen-year-old who wishes to be an artist against his father’s demand that he take up the family trade and marry and produce more Montagues. He’s also coming to the realization that he’s different from his girl-crazy cousin Benvolio, and both enlivened and abashed by the way his handsome family friend Mercutio makes him feel. Thus we have a Romeo recast as a closeted gay male teen who yearns to be left alone so he can sketch landscapes, and I suspect that readers will be polarized in their opinions of the portrayal.
YA fans will likely take in stride the young hero’s modern sensibilities and perhaps even his oddly highbrow British vocabulary, meant to give a nod to the source material, or approximate how teenagers spoke at the time, one supposes. Readers hoping for transporting historical romance may be less enchanted by the author’s choices. Well, Shakespeare himself took artistic liberties in rendering the time period, so one might forgive Roehrig for some questionable details and try to consider the bigger picture. It’s not a story that endeavors to illuminate how gay teens in medieval Verona might have lived from a culturally informed perspective. More so, it’s a retelling crafted to uplift queer representation, and readers of all stripes can likely agree the world could use more of that.
Happily, Romeo is not alone in feeling like he doesn’t fit in. When he goes along with Benvolio to infiltrate a Capulet costume party, he meets Valentine, the younger brother of Romeo’s secret crush, Mercutio, and the only character missing from the Bard’s original story. Valentine has recently returned to Verona after living with extended relatives for several years. The two boys share a private moment by the courtyard fountain outside the party, where they realize they’re two of a kind in their disinterest with boy/girl courtship rituals. A mutual fascination sparks.
Later, Romeo stumbles upon Juliet, who is reimagined as a young woman wise beyond her years who can spot a gay boy from a mile away, even when he’s wearing a mask. Juliet is also beset by the weight of family expectations and sees in Romeo a sympathetic friend and an ally in her pursuit to live a life beyond heterosexual conventions. Then Romeo is recognized as a Montague, and his cozy confessional with Juliet is misinterpreted as a roguish pass. Tybalt wants to kill Romeo for crashing the party and dishonoring his cousin. Romeo flees with Benvolio and Mercutio and later runs into Valentine during the chase. The two boys make their escape through the wooded grounds, and after reaching safety, have more time to flirt and take cautious steps toward getting to know each other physically.
Another queer character is a reimagined, hunky Father Laurence, who serves as a confidante to both Romeo and Juliet as they’re figuring out who they are and how to find freedom with their identities. Laurence shares with Romeo that his vow of celibacy is a lifestyle choice due to his lack of romantic or sexual interest in people of any gender. As someone who has eked out a life beneath the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, Laurence understands Romeo’s plight and is instrumental in the solution for Romeo and Valentine (and Juliet) overcoming the bonds of tradition and moving onward to happily-ever-after.
A sweet and comfy retelling of Shakespeare’s tragic play, with affirming messages for gay male and aro/ace young readers.
Reviewed by Andrew J. Peters
Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews 