Live music, powerful choreography and a simple performance style allow a modern audience to experience Shakespeare’s great love story as an Elizabethan audience might have done some four hundred years ago. The play is rediscovered as a story of “Two houses both alike in dignity”. It’s a tragedy of clan war, of a town in violent chaos, riven by family feuds, where the deaths of two young lovers bring the warring factions to their senses. Verona is brought to the stage in all its classical glory, Latin passion and baroque decadence. This is an Italy where honour, pride and family loyalty are valued above morality, peace and love. In a modern world equally riven by violence and intolerance, where peace seems as elusive as true love, this great tragedy is as relevant as ever. This is not a historical but a mythic setting that enables the morality play and the romantic tragedy to reach its true potential. Shakespeare’s plays were written to be performed with limited scenery (which calls upon the imagination of the audience), live music, small casts, energetic physical performances and a sensitivity to poetry. All of these elements are present in this production which makes it more accessible and relevant. Less is more or, to quote Hamlet, “the play is the thing”. The music for this production comprises both recorded instrumental and live vocal elements. In addition to original composition, John Kenny has arranged and adapted many baroque vocal and instrumental works, which are performed on historical instruments by The Scott Free Ensemble (baroque violin, alto & tenor sackbuts recorders, percussion, harpsichord and organ). Furthermore this production is not only a delightful must see for grown-ups but also a good revision especially for pupils who are about to take their A-Levels. “Extraordinary. The play demonstrates how Shakespeare can be made relevant to a modern audience anywhere in the world” (Japan Times, Tokyo) “World-class theatre” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)