Back Street Romeo
Back Street Romeo
An ‘East Side Story’ in modern Cockney with a nicely sardonic humour. A much superior evening.
Rosemary Say, The Sunday Telegraph
Follows closely the story of the Shakespeare original but transposes the characters into an East London setting. (The two feuding families, for example, are gangsters and trade unionists respectively, and Friar Lawrence runs a youth club.) The dialogue is in modern, colloquial form, and there are some songs. First produced at the Half Moon Theatre in 1979.
Photos
Script Excerpt
Romeo: You from round here?
Juliet: Used to be.
Romeo: Don’t remember seein’ you before.
Juliet: I been away.
Romeo: I woulda remembered.
Juliet: Me an’ all.
Romeo: Yeh?
Juliet: You workin’?
Romeo: Not much. Well not at all actu’lly. Not yet.
Juliet: I’m goin’ a start next week.
Romeo: Workin’?
Juliet: Lookin’. –– I been away at school.
Romeo: Oh. (Grins) It’s all right, en it.
Juliet: What?
Romeo: Lookin’. I’m enjoyin’ it, anyway.
Juliet: What, for work?
Romeo: No, at you.
Juliet: Funny way to put it.
Romeo: Funny ways are the best some times. You get fed up with ordinary ways.
Juliet: Yeh …