Sadie Sink as Juliet and
Noah Jupe as Romeo
Harold Pinter Theatre, London
March 2026
Photo by Manuel Harlan
109 – Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
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The curtain rises on fair Verona, but peace in the city has recently been disturbed by new discord between two noble households who bear an ancient grudge. Young men, servants and gentlemen alike, from the rival houses of Capulet and Montague, roam the streets in search of quarrel. It is not long before fighting breaks out, only halted by the ruling Prince, who is enraged by this civil strife and issues stern warnings to both leaders. The eldest Montague son, Romeo, did not take part in this latest fray, for he has been eschewing social company, distracted by the self-conscious melancholy of an unrequited love. This very night, however, Romeo will be persuaded to attend a party at the rival Capulets, where a sudden but seismic moment of enchantment will change his destiny and that of both families.
This is of course the start of what is arguably the most famous love story of all time, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The tragic tale of the young lovers who fall deeply in love at first sight, and in a mad rush seek to defy their families to be together is probably Shakespeare’s most popular play, not only in the theatre but also in the countless forms it has been retold, in musicals, dance, opera, and film. Romeo and Juliet’s ecstatic young love, and their terrible fate has become iconic, a model for romantic plot lines in any setting or time. As it happens, I am just back from a visit to Verona, where the lovers’ names live on in innumerable bogus forms, and still draw millions to pay homage.
As we record this episode, a typically daring new production of the play directed by Robert Icke is playing in London’s West End, with Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe starring as the “star-crossed lovers”. I’m delighted to have this production as a prompt to cover the play, and even more excited to be able to welcome a proper expert to guide us through it, Shakespearean scholar, Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries. Hester is a Director of Studies in English at Cambridge University, where she specialises in Shakespeare and early modern drama. She is the author of the introduction to the third edition of the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of the text of Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare’s plays covered on The Play Podcast:
104 – Twelfth Night
103 – Titus Andronicus
076 – Othello
070 – King Lear
064 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
048 – Much Ado About Nothing
038 – Macbeth
036 – Hamlet
005 – The Tempest
Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries
Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries is a Director of Studies in English at Cambridge University, where she specialises in Shakespeare and early modern drama. She is the author of the introduction to the third edition of the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of the text of Romeo and Juliet, as well as Shakespeare and Memory (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Hester recommended The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, and
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford.
The Texts
113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
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Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia, is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.
As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.
112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
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David Mamet’s modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross, is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The play had its world premiere in the small Cottesloe theatre at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, and was first performed in New York the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mamet also wrote the extended screenplay for the star-studded 1992 film version.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play was playing at the Old Vic theatre in London, with an all-female cast. This is a particularly provocative idea, because one of the primary themes of this play is masculine identity, and the salesmen in this Chicago office do not hold back in their display of machismo.
To explore Mamet’s unflinching slice of 1980s dog-eat-dog capitalism, I am joined by arts journalist Mark Lawson.
111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
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Bertolt Brecht’s ‘gangster spectacle’, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.
I am delighted to be joined by both the show’s translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht’s political parody.
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