Romeo.Juliet

Making their Slung Low debut, Liverpool-based PurpleDoor bring their uncompromising new adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Supported by Stephen Fry and nominated for a National Lottery Award, PurpleDoor was created with the intention of supporting working-class actors facing barriers to the industry across the North West of England. Our focus has always been on producing radical Shakespeare and unapologetically speaking the language with regional voices.

Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. The tragedy of a young man radicalised into extreme violence, and the thirteen-year-old girl his actions drive to suicide has been misunderstood for centuries. Following R+D at HOME in Manchester, award-winning PurpleDoor set out to reimagine Shakespeare’s most seemingly well-known play, to uncover its darker side and to understand what Shakespeare was actually telling us in this story of a society driven to madness. Inspired by Adolescence, Romeo.Juliet is the latest in PurpleDoor’s fifteen years’ experience with the Bard, with work co-created and made for local working-class audiences.

Age Advisory: 14+

Directed by Karl Falconer, graduate of the Shakespeare Institute and contributor to many academic books on Shakespeare and performance including Teaching and Learning Shakespeare Through Theatre Based Practice, and Shakespeare and Social Engagement, and member of the Northern Broadsides Arts Squad.
‘It doesn’t seem like a bad thing to support PurpleDoor. It’s incredibly exciting’ Stephen Fry