For a love story, Romeo and Juliet has more violence and bloodshed than most TV miniseries. The play begins with a riot, ends with a double suicide and in between there are three murders. And all this happens in the space of four short days. Of course, when you're dealing with love and passion, you're operating on a basic level. The funny thing is, they have their roots in the same soil. It’s common for love to turn to hate – in the blink of an eye. Love and Hate are twins from different mothers, separated at birth. They have a duality. This ambiguity is reflected in Romeo and Juliet, whose language is riddled with oxymorons. “O brawling love, o loving hatred,” cries Romeo in the first scene of the play, using a figure of speech and establishing a theme that will be played over the course of the following five acts. Like the poles of an electric circuit between which the high voltage of emotions passes, love and hatred creates a dialogue and a dialectic, a dynamic tension that fuels action and generates heat. Hot enough for you? When I noticed that two of this season's pieces were set in Verona, I decided to find out a thing or two about the place. Reading the section on "climate" in Harold Rose's rather chatty book, Your Guide to Northern Italy, I noted that "Italy is very hot in summer" and that Rose recommends that the astute traveler "to Avoid August if you can” as it is the hottest month. "the hottest month." Consulting another book, I discovered that Rose, in a typically English way, underestimated the severity of summer weather quite considerably. The second book pointed out that there are times when Scirocco winds "sweep Saharan conditions northward"; winds which, by the time they reach Italy, bring “humid and stifling weather” with temperatures generally exceeding the 100 degree mark. After reading this, much of the violence in Romeo and Juliet became more understandable: they are all short-tempered because of the heat! This is even noted by Benvolio when he warns Mercutio that "The day is hot and Capulet is abroad,/And if we meet we will not escape a fight,/For now these hot days , it’s the mad blood that stirs.” Unfortunately, he warns too late, and the fight he seeks to avoid ends up in the form of Tybalt..