Star-crossed… diggers?! Estonian theater's big-truck Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare's tale of Romeo and Juliet's forbidden love has been retold and performed countless times, but Estonian theater production company Kinoteater has found a way to make its production stand out – by quite literally taking a bulldozer to it.

In a quarry some 40 kilometers southwest of Tallinn, a total of 16 excavators, trucks and other vehicles took to the stage in Romula ja Julia, playing the roles of the feuding Montague and Capulet families – or rather, the Motoretti and Carburetti families.

A red Ford pickup truck plays Juliet, Romeo is represented by a modified rally truck, and the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt is enacted by two excavators wielding their attachments like swords.

Kinoteater co-director Paavo Piik says finding the 'actors' for their play was a very intuitive process.

"When we saw this red 4x4 pickup that was kind of small compared to all the big excavators, we kind of had this instant emotion – 'OK, this could be Juliet'," he said. "When we saw this kind of very vain-looking semi truck, this was Paris."

Piik said that it had been challenging to find ways to convey big emotions with the big machines, to make them talk and understand each other – and to work with the contrast between big and small, the very powerful and very gentle.

Their vision seems to have been well received by the audience.

"Even though it was cars, it felt really sweet and cute", said audience member Maia Pussim, noting that the power of the famous kissing scene had been captured really well.

A bulldozer, an excavator, a concrete mixer and a fire truck also power the theatrical love-struggle, in the Rummu prison-quarry that became known in previous decades when inmates from the nearby prisons were forced to excavate stone there.