Romeo and Juliet on screen 1960 "Romeo, Juliet a Tma". As a result of this ubiquity, any film about young love and its challenges will court comparison with "Romeo and Juliet", as "Roseanna McCoy" did in 1949, and two James Dean films – "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause" – did in the 1950s. In 1960, Peter Ustinov's stage parody of "Romeo and Juliet", "Romanoff and Juliet" was filmed – dramatising true love interfering with the cold-war superpowers' attempts to control the fictional state of Concordia. In 1980 an episode of the anime Astro Boy was based on the Romeo and Juliet story.
Romeo and Juliet the play's "twin themes of love and the total breakdown of understanding between two generations" had contemporary relevance. Recent performances often set the play in the contemporary world. For example, in 1986, the Royal Shakespeare Company set the play in modern Verona. Switchblades replaced swords, feasts and balls became drug-laden rock parties, and Romeo committed suicide by hypodermic needle. In 1997, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre produced a version set in a typical suburban world. Romeo sneaks into the Capulet barbecue to meet Juliet, and Juliet discovers Tybalt's death while in class at school. The play is sometimes given a historical