The Estonian production Romula ja Julia was staged by Kinoteater at the abandoned Rummu limestone quarry, about 40 kilometers southwest of Tallinn. It premiered on July 29, 2025, and ran for about a week with multiple performances.
In this reimagining, Romeo was portrayed by a modified rally truck and Juliet by a bright red Ford Ranger 4×4 pickup. The feuding Montague and Capulet families became the Motoretti and Carburetti clans, represented entirely by vehicles. Mercutio was an excavator, Tybalt a hydraulic hammer, Lord Carburetti a fire truck, Sampson a front loader, Paris a semi-truck, and the narrator a tracked skid-steer. City buses announced the ball, a tiny RC car delivered secret messages, and even Fortinbras from Hamlet made an appearance as an electric vehicle symbolizing a new era.
The show was almost completely wordless, using choreographed vehicle movement, drifting, stunts, and dramatic set pieces like a car plunging off a cliff. Music, fireworks, and even a heart-painted concrete mixer added to the spectacle.
Co-director Paavo Piik described the project as an experiment in performing Shakespeare today and exploring whether love could be conveyed through heavy machinery. Henrik Kalmet said that beneath the machines’ power, the goal was to find poetry and beauty.
Audience members described the performance as unexpectedly sweet and emotional, with one noting that even though the actors were cars, the feeling of love was still clear. Another arrived expecting something ridiculous but left genuinely moved.
