"Juliet & Jul-Yingtai," a New Bilingual Mashup of Shakespeare and Chinese Legend, Comes to Jersey City

Published by New Jersey Stage
originally published: 10/21/2026

(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Following a successful run in Dorchester, MA, Vermilion Theater brings the bilingual play Juliet & Jul-Yingtai to Jersey City this week. Presented in collaboration with Jersey City Theater Center, the production will play two performances only — Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2026 — at White Eagle Hall. Performances are at 7:30pm each night.

Juliet & Jul-Yingtai is written by Wisteria Deng and Melvin Yen, with music by Silvan Tang and Panzhen Wu. The production places Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet directly alongside The Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯与祝英台), a Chinese legend as central to Chinese culture as Romeo and Juliet is to Western culture, reimagining both as a single, intertwined story told in English and Mandarin.

Set in a psychiatric institute in New Jersey, the play follows Julie, an Asian American woman accused of killing her abusive husband in self-defense, and Jul, the therapist assigned to her care. Unbeknownst to them, the two are carrying fragments of two tragic love stories accidentally crossed centuries ago in the afterlife’s South Gate Archive — Julie dreams of Hangzhou, Jul dreams of Verona. As their sessions unfold, Juliet & Jul-Yingtai asks whether an inherited ending must always repeat itself, or whether two people can choose one that finally belongs to them.

The production is directed by Sissi Xiqian Chen and features Samantha Haughton as Juliet/Julie, Colum Greeley as Romeo/Ox-Head, Timmy Ong as Liang Shanbo/Horse-Face, 黎珈璐 as Meng Po/Guard, and Lebing Lavender Zhuang as Jul-Yingtai/Jul.

Tickets for Friday's performance are available for purchase online here. Tickets for Saturday's performance are available for purchase online here. White Eagle Hall is located at 337 Newark Ave in Jersey City, New Jersey.

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The creative team includes scenic design by Ruomeng Li and Dongmin (Devon) Sun, costume design by Lyle Laize Qin, lighting design by Yung-hung Sung, sound design by Silvan Tang, projection and visual design by Josh Sun, and dramaturgy by Sissi Xiqian Chen.

As part of the opening performance, Vermilion Theater will host a community talkback partnering with Asian Women Development Plan International (AWDPI) in honor of the Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). Titled “Who Writes the Story: Immigrant Women’s Path to Safety and Justice in the U.S.” (移民女性在美国司法下的自救之路), the talkback will start immediately following the performance, around 9pm, featuring Tiantian Wu, the U.S. Office Lead at AWDPI.

Beginning with an introduction to AWDPI and its work, the talkback will explore the legal and systemic barriers immigrant women face in the U.S. Family Law system. These include an overview of family, what constitutes relationship abuse, and the role of protective orders. Drawing on the play and lived experiences, the conversation will explore how cultural differences and language barriers shape immigrant women’s communication and access to support.

Wu leads U.S. initiatives and partnerships for AWDPI, a global nonprofit operating across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific dedicated to ending gender-based violence and advancing the empowerment of Asian women overseas. Through advocacy, cross-sector collaboration, and community engagement, she works to expand access to resources for underserved communities and advance policies that protect women’s rights. She is also an Assistant Vice President at Blaylock Van.

Juliet & Jul-Yingtai is produced by Vermilion Theater in collaboration with Jersey City Theater Center. Anna Rui Dou serves as the executive producer, while Ziqi Zhang serves as Producer for Vermilion Theater. Ruihan Renee Yang serves as Production Stage Manager, Xinyue Tang as Marketing & Publicity Manager, Kaye Huiyuan Hu as General Manager, and Emma Song as Production Manager.

Juliet & Jul-Yingtai is part of the Vermilion Bilingual Theater Incubator, an initiative dedicated to exploring Mandarin-English bilingual storytelling through reimaged Shakespearean works and Chinese folk traditions. The production premiered in New Haven in April 2025, followed by a successful run in Dorchester in January 2026.

Through producing multilingual versions of plays originally written in Mandarin or translated to Mandarin from other languages, Vermilion Theater is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that aims to facilitate cross-cultural conversations and foster a sense of belonging among the Chinese diaspora and the broader non-Mandarin-speaking audience along the East Coast. Vermilion Theater was co-founded by Wisteria Deng, who also serves as the company’s Artistic Director.