Redefining Juliet

This is a retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

like no-one has ever seen before.

Throughout history, women like us have never been cast as Juliet.

The universal image of beauty does not include difference.

-And why shouldn't it?

-Be strong and prosperous in this resolve.

Thou couldst not make him live. Therefore, have done.

-And I hope, then, thou will be satisfied.

-No!

-We are redefining who Juliet is.

-Don't stress, don't stress.

It's because I'm trying to be her.

If the audience isn't convinced we can be Juliet, then we'll fail.

We've cast six actors who would never be considered for the role.

We're trying to put a new take on it,

and say, "Here, look at all these people, they can do this, too.

"You just forgot about them."

This programme contains some strong language

It is, it's freezing outside. Tim, can you just bring the chair over?

Thank you.

Yeah, Frankie, I'm Rae, director. Pleased to meet you.

-Hello.

-Storme.

-How are you?

-Nice to meet you. Good, thank you.

The people who get cast as Juliet tend to be from within quite

a narrow band of, uh,

kind of perceived femininity.

-You're ready for me to go? Is it all right if I direct it to you?

-Please do.

-OK. Perfect.

Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face.

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek. For what thou hast spoke tonight.

'There are lots of people out there who would love the chance to'

play Juliet, but with the industry as it currently is,

they are almost certainly not going to get cast,

certainly not within the mainstream theatre anyway.

-What speech do you have for us, first of all?

-I have Cressida from Troilus And Cressida.

-Marvellous.

-Oh, nice!

My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown

Too headstrong for their mother.

-Should I just go?

-Yeah, just go for it.

Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Against self slaughter There is a prohibition so divine

That cravens my weak hand.

You do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this...

Wouldst thou have that

Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life...

Do you not give me thanks? Are you not proud?

Do you not count yourself blessed?

Thus much for law or kindred!

I shall do it.

And this night, or tomorrow, he shall love me.

The reason that I cast multiple Juliets was because I wanted

to cover a wide range of kind of

impairments slash differences.

So I wanted to cover size, I wanted to cover ethnicity, I wanted to

cover weight, I wanted to cover height, I wanted to cover...

I wanted to cover disability as well, but that wasn't

the focus point of it, the focus point of it was diversity.

And live a coward in thine own esteem.

Letting, "I dare not" wait upon "I would,"

Like the poor cat i' th'adage?

Nice. Cool.

The ability to just lay yourself bare

and be completely honest, which is what great actors do.

They are showing themselves to you in a way that is very vulnerable.

Maybe the thing with them is,

regardless of sort of size or shape or disability,

they have the right energy for Juliet,

that kind of part innocent, but part kind of

sparky feel to it.

So that's what I think about her.

And then Eleanor is just...

-I mean, I just think she's a fascinating person.

-Yeah.

Again, I don't see why,

there's nothing about her that couldn't be Juliet.

I can work with a deaf person, I can work with a small person,

I can work with a fat person, I can work... You know, that's not the important thing.

The important thing is, can they do the job?

Cool, morning. Do you want to come sit at the table?

All the scenes that we do from Romeo And Juliet are the ones that Juliet's in.

So we tell the arc of her story. So anyone coming who, for example, doesn't know

Romeo And Juliet should still understand her full trajectory.

And then, interspersed with the scenes, the actors talk about their

experiences that maybe mirror some of what Juliet is going through.

Verbatim theatre is a style of theatre that uses stories from your

own life to influence the structure of the play.

And if you want to do a show that makes people listen,

you need to look at these people's lives and you need to

see where, like, what they want to say to the world in this show.

There are ten sort of clips from the play that we're doing.

And then...

..there'll obviously be the verbatim bits intertwined, which is

what we're going to work out today. Yeah.

Any stories that anyone wants to shove my way,

and then I will start asking you questions, if there's nothing.

Is there anything that anyone thinks, "Yeah, this could be good"?

Yeah, I was out and about for my boyfriend's birthday

and went to go see an American band, and some woman at the end,

she's taking a photo of this lead singer,

she was like, "Take a photo, but look at me, I'm looking like a dwarf."

She looked at me and went, "Ha-ha, that's funny." And pointed.

And I went, "Excuse me, that's really rude."

And I saw her cry afterwards,

and I thought, you know, you have to learn that that's not OK

and I'm not going to stand there and accept that you just mocked me

in a huge crowd of people.

'Because of the strength that I had to stick up for myself,

'that now is something that's going to stay with me for a while,'

and I think that's something I would like to bring, maybe to

make it as well a bit of a feistier Juliet as well.

I've only got three pictures of me without my hair online.

They're the only pictures you'll find.

And it was only last year that I put one up for the first time.

How did you feel differently?

Because obviously you were older when something happened to you

that society would perceive as being different.

Whereas everyone else has kind of like pretty much born or grew into.

From that point of view, you're the only person who's got a sense of what it feels like to

maybe be considered normal and then

have a sense of difference.

I don't know. I think, for me, it was constantly being alert

and having this secret. Feeling ashamed, feeling ugly.

It's like that thing where I take my wig off for the first

time in front of somebody. It's a very big thing for me.

And I feel like, I hate to say,

but I do feel like my friends have to earn it because I don't

want to be friends with people that can't handle it, because it is me.

'Juliet is a lot more clever'

and a lot more conniving than I think we give her credit for.

And if you take away the fact she is supposed to be 14

and you just look at her as a woman, say,

then she has taken control,

she's fearless.

If you could change the thing about you

that makes you considered

-less normal in the world, then would you change it?

-No way.

-Never.

-So, OK.

-No way.

There are times when I want to look less CP.

Like, I think I can hear it in my voice.

And I think sometimes in the way my hands move and stuff.

I don't sometimes like that, but I enjoy being in a wheelchair

and I enjoy being who I am. So, I wouldn't change it.

The amount of stories that we've had today from people. Comments,

just walking down the street and you're commented on, it's like,

how would you like it if every time you

walked down the street, you knew there was a relatively high

percentage of chance someone was going to go, "Oh, my God, there's a white man"?

And you know that it's derogatory. Do you know what I mean?

Or that they think it's funny.

Or even just that they think it's worth commenting on.

But to know that that's what happens to people every day,

this is just their life.

The first time I went to get my pill, the morning after pill,

I was asked, the first thing I was asked was, "Were you raped?"

That was the first thing I was asked.

-Before, like...

-Are you fucking kidding me?

-No, literally the first time, it was....

Also the first time I'd ever had sex in my life.

I went to my university pharmacy and I said,

"Can I have the morning after pill?"

And the first thing the woman said was, "Did someone rape you?"

You are made to feel physically uncomfortable.

If you have an intimate relationship with someone.

Because you're not supposed to, you are not supposed to do that.

That's not your privilege, it's someone else's.

The first thing I noticed was a monster set of wheels,

and I thought, now I can get around town in style.

It was like the third time we met, I jumped on the back and started driving around.

And you kept saying, "No, stop." You were like laughing hysterically at the same time.

'Juliet being in a wheelchair is completely irrelevant.'

The most important thing about playing a character,

if you're an actor, is how she feels.

Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say "Ay,"

And I will take they word. Yet if thou swear'st,

Thou mayst prove false.

I should have been more strange, I must confess

But that thou overheard'st it, I was 'ware,

My true love's passion. Therefore pardon me,

And not impute this yielding.

'People are open-minded if you confront them with it.

'As soon as you put this Juliet in front of someone,

'their difference becomes irrelevant.'

-OK, and here we go, you are going to do it quick, OK? Lads!

-Lads!

-Ladies!

-Lads!

-Lads!

-Lads!

-Lads!

-Lads!

-Lads!

-Fuck off!

-Lads.

-Fuck off!

-Lads.

-Fuck off!.

-Lads.

-Ladies.

-Fuck off!

-No!

THEY CHEER

..much of grief shows, shows still some want of wit.

Yet let me weep for feeling such a loss.

Not the friend.

To wreak the love I bore my cousin Upon his body that I slaughtered him!

That same villain, Romeo!

What? Which you weep for.

A lot of the exercises is just about getting people exhausted or

getting people to use the language more,

because it is quite muscular, the language, you've got to get

your tongue around it in a way that... We don't speak like that nowadays.

..at Saint Peter's Church

Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,

He shall not make thee there a joyful bride.

These are news indeed. How?

-How?!

-Get to her, get to her. No, Eleanor, you're... No, Eleanor.

-Oh, OK.

-ELEANOR RETCHES

Wow.

SHE RECITES LINES QUICKLY

Find thou the means and I'll find such a man,

But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.

'Obviously, I'm never going to be cast as Juliet again.

'That's not a part for me, says the stereotypical world.

'And so, to have the chance to bring something so different to her,

'that's so incredible.'

Indeed, I shall never be satisfied until I behold Romeo dead.

'Obviously, every audition you go to you want the job,'

but when it's a project where it sits in your heart,

it's a bit more like,

"I want this. I want to be involved in this project."

I think, for me,

what I would bring to Juliet is the thought that human is enough.

We're all built on differences that don't make sense.

She's impulsive, but she plans everything.

She's sweet, but she's dangerous.

She's naive, but she is completely in control.

She's fearless, but full of fear, and that's what humans are,

we're not one thing, we're not the other.

And that's what I want to bring to her,

that sense that human is enough.

It is not yet near day.

Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale.

Night's candles are burnt out and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

I must be gone and live,

or stay and die.

I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,

'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow,

Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat

The vaulty heaven so high above our heads.

I have more care to stay than will to go!

It is the lark that sings so out of tune,

Straining harsh discord and unpleasing sharps.

KNOCK AT THE DOOR

OK, so what we're going to do is,

if you push hard enough on this with any part of your body,

you can push with your back, with your bum, with your head,

with your arms, if you push hard enough, you will move it, OK?

So you just have to believe that

and keep pushing as you go through your whole scene.

'I've never really studied Shakespeare,'

never thought it was something that I'd ever be able to be involved in.

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.

Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!

-Ay me!

-She speaks!

Oh, speak again, bright angel!

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague?

"Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art..."

Oh, shit, I skipped right ahead, didn't I?

-It's fine, don't worry, go for it.

-I'm flashing you my bum, sorry.

Oh, we love it.

'I can grow so much from this, as an actress,

'and really take on new aspects that I've never had the opportunity

'to do, alongside doing Shakespeare.'

Yes, cool, very nice.

So there's lots of energy. Cos, if you think about it, it is...

You are in danger of your life, which is part of it as well,

which is part of the fun of it,

but genuinely, they have killed each other.

The Tybalts... The Capulets and the Montagues have killed each other.

You're then really worried about him, then you've got the excitement

of the party, you've got the excitement of your first kiss,

certainly your first kiss, maybe your first kiss, probably not.

-Cool, shall we give it another go?

-Yeah, I'm going to have a mouthful of water.

Yes, absolutely.

This, for me, is a massive, massive learning curve.

Obviously, Shakespeare is very precise

and written for what it's written for.

Juliet isn't written for a little person.

It's going to be the first thing, really, that you've seen me in.

-Yeah, since panto.

-Yeah.

-That was more...

That was when it was all very green, wasn't it?

-I'm going to have to flirt with Romeo, though.

-Do it.

-I'm sorry.

Fill your boots, girl.

SHE LAUGHS

-I'll get a chill before we go. My legs are aching.

-Are they?

-Yeah.

-Been on your feet all day?

No, I think it's just from being where I was sat down.

-Shock to the system.

-Funky.

'You know, as people would meet somebody in a nightclub

'and stuff like that, you'd kind of wonder if it ever was genuine,'

if they've got an alternative motive,

thinking they'll get with the little person as a dare,

that horrible side.

So I did have quite a closed wall with allowing people in.

I was like, "I don't need a boyfriend, don't need one.

"I'm fine, don't want one. Nope."

And then obviously I'd met Paul and it just changed.

I just went, "Actually, yeah, I do. I do want to be with you."

God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!

How now! Who calls?

Your mother.

Madam, I am here. What is your will?

This is the matter.

Tell me, daughter Juliet,

How stands your disposition to be married?

It is an honour that I dream not of.

Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you,

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem

Are made already mothers.

Thus then in brief:

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

Verona's summer hath not such a flower.

Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?

I'll look to like, if looking liking move.

But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

So one of the things for you is the specificities

of small people, people being like,

"Yes, but they need to have a big head or dah-dah-dah..."

The thing that small people are always feisty, and the story

-you told about the woman who said you were like a dwarf.

-Yeah.

Oh, no, she said she was like a dwarf

and then you were like, "Fuck off."

Someone will have a line somewhere about the fetishism of difference.

Tash will talk about being fat.

The thing about midgets.

-I looked that up.

-Did you?

-Yeah.

That there's not just the obvious difference,

there's also physical and emotional pains that go with

the differences that people have, something about that.

I don't know who'll say that yet, but someone.

Megan, from the side, looked like a hunchback.

THEY LAUGH

Lara, don't tend to say anything cos you can never be quite 100% sure

you've lip-read right,

and that you'll always find deaf people in the kitchen.

Romantic expectations for people.

-Sex, generally, with you.

-Always.

And the main thing is, just don't let them

sound self-pitying in any way. It's all about...

The stuff, when it'll touch people,

is if it's just done in a really matter-of-fact way.

And obviously some stuff is just funny, and we'll just play that up

and be like, "Yeah, that's funny."

This project is a lot to do with individual,

as well as the bigger picture.

And it was really weird to be talking about myself so openly

and actually feel safe about it, knowing that it was a safe space.

It's exciting, it's really exciting, it's just...

-It hits a place, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Totally.

I didn't get upset while we were talking about it the other day

cos I think it's just...

-We had everyone there and it was kind of funny.

-Yeah.

I can't believe it can make you feel like that, and then

when you think you're going to be in front of an audience,

baring your soul, people just don't think about it

when they say these things, and now, because of them,

I've made it this far and it's just...

I don't want it to come out as a "Fuck you,"

cos I want it to be positive.

-It's not a fucking pity party, this show.

-No, no, no. Not at all.

-It's the complete reverse.

-Yeah.

# Hold me closer tiny dancer

# Count the headlights on the highway... #

When I was 15, 16, I got diagnosed with depression, PTSD,

that's the time I started losing hair from my eyebrows,

and then the first two months of sixth form

was when everything fell out.

So I was juggling the feeling of having to hide it

from every single person.

It was hard feeling like the bald one.

And that's just not the image that I'd had for myself, growing up.

Even though we all face very different challenges,

these women that I work with, they all have similar experiences

and ideas of what it's like to feel like an outsider.

This is the reality of our lives. This is what we go through.

It's a really good idea that someone came up with,

you get to see people playing Juliet who don't normally get to see,

but then also, hopefully people will take some things away

from what the women say about their experiences,

and hopefully it'll just make people think twice

before they even think something, let alone say it,

that it might actually just make them think again about people

who appear different from the norm.

Who is this guy?

Holy shit!

He's a babe!

Take your time.

See the space, see everyone there. Who's there? Who's there?

And then...bam.

Take your time.

MUSIC SPEEDS UP

Bam!

It really is like the movie's come on and everyone's rushing

into the living room. As soon as that game is on, you're primed.

You are ready to play cat and mouse with this man.

'The first day that I was in the rehearsal room without my hair on,

'it just felt really liberating.

'But I've still got some things to work on for me for that.

'In the sequence that I do with Romeo,

'there's this really sexy bit,

'and I'm still trying to deal sexy without my hair on,

'I'm still trying to own that,

'so that's something I'm trying to get through in these rehearsals.'

'The limitation of roles that people like us get put up for

'don't reflect modern-day society.'

I want to experience a sexually desirable role

because I think people like me need to be seen in that way.

Back to you!

-Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!

-MUSIC CRESCENDOS

Bam!

SILENCE

Yeah!

-BREATHLESSLY:

-Is this the poultice for my aching bones?

Henceforward do your messages yourself.

Here's such a coil! Come, what says Romeo?

-MUFFLED:

-Have you got leave to go to shrift today?

'Guys are cruel, girls are crueller.'

Girls do it in a way that they don't realise that they're being nasty,

that they don't realise they're having an effect on you.

'From a really early age, girls would refer to me as big,

'rather than tall, and then laugh and say,

'"Yeah, I didn't mean that. I just mean you're quite big."'

THEY LAUGH

This drunk girl came over to me and she was making a point

of saying how small she was and how tiny she was next to me.

'And then she took a photo with me.'

-They're not pigeons.

-LAUGHING:

-They're not pigeon doves!

Do nimble-pigeons draw love?

Just run round five times, for me. You're a bit too fit.

'What annoyed me more about it was that I did it.'

And I think it does come from the thing of just apologising

for not being what I think I should be.

It comes down to a fundamental point

that if you are a really tall woman, in my personal experience,

you have to really tell yourself that you're a girl.

You have to really...

If you've got bigger hands and lankier limbs, you kind of have to

constantly tell yourself every day that you are feminine.

And that you are a woman, and that you are this,

and that you may struggle to have people see you that way.

If I profane with my unworthiest hand,

This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this,

For saints have hands which pilgrims' hands do touch,

And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Ay, ones that they must use in prayer.

Oh, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.

They pray. Grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.

Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.

Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

Sin from thy lips? Oh, trespass sweetly urged!

-Give me my sin again.

-You kiss by the book.

My only love sprung from my only hate.

Too early seen unknown, and known...too late.

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathed enemy.

Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.

Ah, dear Juliet.

If the measure of thy joy

Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more

To blazon it, sweeten with thy breath

This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue

Unfold the imagined happiness that both

Receive in either by this dear encounter.

-LAUGHING:

-Yeah, don't hold her hands, because then she can't talk!

It looks a little bit like...

It's actually a bit easier for me

to sign it because, with voices,

you've got the tone,

you've got the pitch, you've got everything,

and I'm always very nervous that

I don't get the emotion in my voice.

Whereas, with sign language,

I can be in it,

I can throw my body language into it,

I can throw my face expression into it.

Come, come! Come with me and we will make short work,

For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone

Till holy church incorporate two in one.

'It's lovely to work with actors'

who try to understand what it is

I'm saying to them,

so that they can jump in

at the right moment, rather than going,

"Oh, she's finished signing, it's my line now."

It's nice having that.

'This is the first time I've ever done theatre.'

I have the most amazing life, but there's just something

about going into a different place, just being that character

and knowing what makes that character tick

and what makes them happy.

It's a nice challenge to explore.

Come on, Michael. Good boy.

Good boy.

That's it. He's a more shy one, Oliver is.

I have had some people who say, "Are you sure you want to go into that?

"It's hard enough for the mainstream actors,

"let alone actors that have something different about them."

But if I don't try, I might regret it.

Who have I got, hey? Hey, Tom!

Good boy, Tom. Go in there.

I love animals because I can understand them.

It doesn't matter if I'm tired, because that's when I tend not

to understand people, it's when I'm tired because I can't concentrate.

But with animals, it doesn't matter what mood I'm in,

it doesn't matter how tired I am,

I understand them and they understand me back.

Bring your head over. Go on.

SIREN BLARES

At the moment, it's a lot of deaf roles,

but I want to break out of that.

I want them to be able to look and then go,

"Hey, actually, why can't this character be deaf?

"Why do you need a character that's not different?"

Growing up, I didn't really have any deaf role models that

I could look up to. I only had the adults that I knew personally.

If I only change the life of one child,

to show them not to be ashamed of what makes you different,

then I'm happy.

There's nothing left in there.

Maybe there's something still on your lips.

SHE SMACKS HER LIPS

-No, no, no.

-LAUGHTER

-You're such a good kisser.

-Thanks, babes.

I can do it virtually, I know. You can feel it. Erm...

Oh, a dagger.

What's the line just before you knock yourself off?

This is thy sheath.

-But what's the bit before that?

-Oh, happy dagger.

-Thank you.

Oh, happy dagger,

-This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.

-Let me die.

Oh, happy dagger,

This is thy sheath.

There rust, and let me die.

..and easier to get in there.

'We've picked our actors based on their ability.

'I've always wanted to play Juliet

'and the only way I could was by putting on a production like this.'

'It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

'That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.

'..friend, I must hear from thee every day in the hour,

'For in a minute there are many days.'

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek,

For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.

Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny

What I have spoke, but farewell compliment.

'It's quite scary and you do feel very, very vulnerable.

'I particularly feel very vulnerable because, obviously if I fall over,'

I can't get up. I just think, "OK, you're in love with him.

"He's not going to let you fall over or look bad.

"Or feel awkward or your legs fall off, or something."

When you get off, Tim, get off this way and come here

-and talk like that.

-Oh, that's cool.

-That's good, isn't it?

Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day... It was the whatsit.

It was the nightingale.

It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale.

Yeah, both of you look much...

..what envious streaks

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.

Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

..by yonder blessed moon, I swear

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops...

Oh, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,

That monthly changes in her circled orb.

What shall I swear by?

Do not swear at all.

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,

Too like the lightning, that has ceased to be,

Ere one can say "It lightens." Sweet, goodnight!

Oh, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?

The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine.

'When somebody who you've only known for a week,

'but you've been getting to know them really well,

'suddenly gets up and does something that really takes your breath away,'

and you go, "Oh, my God, I didn't realise that you had that to give,

"or that's a part of you, or you were able to do that,"

in whatever sense of that, it just instantly informs

what you're going to do next.

Meg, what have you got there?

Whatever I'm writing is coming across really fucking preachy.

-Go on, then. Say it.

-I wrote, "I was born in the '90s.

"That was all about heroin chic, skinny as hell... Noughties were all about big boobs,

"and now it's about less up top, more behind, as long as you have a size-8 waist, no cellulite.

"It'll change again. There's no way to know if you'll be right.

"You can only know that 95% of us will be wrong."

-I think that's good!

-It's a bit preachy, though.

-No, it's fine.

I think we can have a bit of preach in there.

I think it's good to have the odd bit of preach in it.

And then, at the end of that, "Love give me strength,

"and strength shall help afford."

Meg, you're going to start off with...

In one of our sessions we were asked,

"Would you like to change the thing that made you different?"

Nice. Lara, you're first.

"No, cos I'll lose deaf culture, want to be involved in conversation,

"but really everyone just needs to sign."

Yeah? Have you written that?

-Yeah.

-You've written it? You've written that bit?

That's pretty much what I was going to say. You said it word for word.

It's like you're in my brain. Wow.

LAUGHTER

-Storme, what have you written?

-Erm...

I'd quite like to run on the sand, but, no,

I like being in a wheelchair, it gives me an edge.

I want to say something about I want selective non-alopecia.

So I don't want my hair back on my legs or my fanny or my armpits

but I want it back on my head and my face.

So, like, nose-down I'm OK with having alopecia.

Do you want to say, "Fuck, yeah, I want my hair back.

"Well, on my head"?

And then just look at my foof. OK.

I don't know how to spell alopecia. How do you spell it?

A-L-O-P-E-C-I-A.

..keep Tybalt company

And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

My sweet mother, curse me not away.

Delay this wedding by a month, a day.

Erm, fuck.

Love goes towards love as schoolboys from their books.

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

Yay! Thank you.

Right, is there anything else anyone wants to say?

Cos this is the moment to say it.

This is the last point where there's anything...

So, here goes. Farewell.

All the Juliets die.

Romeo on the tomb.

Fucking finished it, mate.

Well done, team, thank you.

Woohoo!

Yes, there is a deeper message about society and meaning,

but essentially, also, we're just trying to act and perform

and put on a play and we don't want to be seen

any other way and that's the point.

They're here cos they're all talented

and they can all do it so it's just more about giving them

the freedom to do what they can do anyway.

If audiences thought, "Nah, can't see any of them as Juliet,

"doesn't work," that is a failure.

My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words

Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound.

And the next thing you say is after...

Storme's. And that's Storme, isn't it?

INDISTINCT CHATTER

# Mama

# Just killed a man

# Put a gun against his head

# Pulled my trigger now he's dead

# Mama

# Life had just begun

# But now I've gone and thrown it all away

# Mama

# Oooooooh

# Didn't mean to make you cry

# If I'm not back again this time tomorrow

# Carry on, carry on

# As if nothing really matters... #

APPLAUSE

Good evening, everyone, welcome to the showcase Redefining Juliet.

This show is a personal dream and ambition of mine to put on.

It's the most powerful, important thing you'll see

and it's Romeo And Juliet as you've never seen it before.

Thank you very much. Enjoy the show.

Can I go forward when my heart is here?

Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.

Oh, Romeo, Romeo.

Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father, refuse thy name.

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn, my love,

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

My sweet mother, cast me not away!

Delay this marriage by a month, a week.

Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

And with this knife I'll help it presently.

Be not so long to speak - I long to die.

No, hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope.

My first-ever boyfriend broke up with me

cos he said I got too comfortable.

I'd take off my eyebrows and eyelashes

and the rest of my make-up in front of him

and he said I just wasn't sexy unless I was done up properly.

Can you not stay a while? Can you not see that I am out of breath?

SHE WHEEZES

Once I was in this bar and I accidentally fell over

and knocked into this guy.

I knocked his drink everywhere and he didn't mind,

but his girlfriend did.

-She looked at me, looked straight up and shouted at me.

-Oh, my God!

I mean, I know you haven't been a woman for very long

but could you watch out for the little one?

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love!

Give consent to marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow.

Oh, happy dagger,

This is thy sheath.

There rust and let me die.

In one of our first sessions together we asked the question,

would you change the thing that makes you different?

Hell, yeah, I want my hair back... from the nose up.

I would love to, you know, run along a beach, but actually,

I quite like being in a wheelchair.

Gives me an edge.

CHEERING

All you need is for the audience to get what it's about

and as soon as they got what it's about, they were really enjoying it.

It felt like it was really current and really vibrant

and really important.

It's not really about us, it's about a much bigger thing.

It's a long journey and we've done so much to get it to this point.

It's telling the story and it's telling the people's story

and it's the people who can't get up on stage,

we're telling their stories as well.

Yeah, it's really personal and I feel really, like, naked right now.

But... We're doing it for a reason, aren't we?

Women like us are not seen as desirable on screen or on the stage.

Just because we don't fit that mould doesn't mean we can't do it.

Why shouldn't we?