Though the show has come and gone, this summer theater venture took the ageless, timeless Shakespearean tragedy and transplanted it to Nashville’s seamier side, gangs, guns, hip hop and rap music, and all. Against a backdrop of tenements and trash cans, ‘gangsta’ slang was set aside and and the original Queen’s English was spoken.

I’m a purist about my Shakespeare; I love to see it staged for the era in which it is written. No updates. No time shifts. Give me my period costumes and mood-setting castles. Until now.

To paraphrase my grandchildren, this drama team “rocked.”

Against the blare of music gunfire sets the tone for two gangs who hate each enough to kill, whose gunfire jolts the audience to immediate attention. Enter into the picture gentle Juliet and tender Romeo. Their interaction is magic. Pure and simple. They love as vividly and intensely as everyone else seems to hate.

As Turner writes, the rhythm of Shakespeare’s words is lyrical poetry that shouldn’t mix well with modern urban slang. The words, the rhyme, the meter, the cadence is different. Yet this cast manage to smooth most of the transitions with a fluid ease, nipping and tucking in the rough spots.

Turner is absolutely correct in saying that is a company, and a director worth watching.