Two teenagers fall in love, but their feuding families and fate itself cause the relationship to end in tragedy.
Staged in the West End in 2016 as part of the inaugural Plays at the Garrick season, this inventive and atmospheric reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies was co-directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford with a stellar cast featuring Richard Madden as Romeo, Lily James as Juliet, Sir Derek Jacobi as Mercutio and Meera Syal as The Nurse.
Romeo and Juliet was the second cinema broadcast in the hugely successful Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company Live cinema season, following on from two-time box office hit The Winter’s Tale. Directed for the screen by Benjamin Caron (The Crown, Wallander, Sherlock), it was filmed in black and white CinemaScope, bringing a new vision to this heartbreaking tale of forbidden love where the longstanding feud between Verona’s Montague and Capulet families brings about devastating consequences for two young lovers caught in the conflict.
I am delighted our production of Romeo and Juliet is to return to cinemas this summer. When we staged the play as part of our Plays at the Garrick season a key aim was to attract new audiences, both by presenting Shakespeare with naturalism and reality, but also by taking the play out to the wider world through our partnership with Trafalgar Releasing. The original cinema broadcast was seen by 125,000 people worldwide and I hope that this rerelease will give many more people – particularly schoolchildren and students who have endured such a major interruption to their education during the past year – the opportunity to enjoy this passionately committed production of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy.
Kenneth Branagh
One of Shakespeare’s earliest works, Romeo and Juliet tells the story of the son and daughter of two feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets, who fall madly in love. Knowing their families will forbid their relationship, they are married in secret. However when Romeo is banished for killing Juliet’s cousin in a duel, the lovers are set on a course that will lead to their famously tragic conclusion.
Lily James shot to fame playing Lady Rose in ITV’s Downton Abbey, whilst Richard Madden is best known for starring as Robb Stark in Game of Thrones. A new production from master Shakespeare director Kenneth Branagh is one not to be missed.
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