Thursday, 14 May 2026
Directed by Tom Healey
Performed by WAAPA 3rd Year Acting Students
12 – 17 June | Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA
It’s just over 400 years since Shakespeare sat down to pen Romeo & Juliet. His enduring power, then as now, lies in his ability to read and interpret the complex world of the human heart.
Set against a divided and conservative world, this reimagining of Romeo and Juliet poses urgent questions about the values we pass on to the next generation. Juliet and Romeo are taught to hate each other for no reason other than loyalty to an ancient grudge - so old that its origins are forgotten. Their hearts, souls and bodies are instinctively drawn to each other. The retaliation of the world in which they are raised is brutal.
Director Tom Healey promises a bold departure from tradition:
“This production of Romeo & Juliet contains no tights, sword fights or codpieces. It is for a 21st-century audience – sophisticated in taste, contemporary in approach, and fearless in intensity.” He adds: “Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy because, in a world dominated by reactionary conservatives, where bullies run the streets and love is contingent on family loyalty, no spontaneous, free and intuitive love can survive.”
Romeo & Juliet begins as a romantic comedy and ends – in the course of just four days, and driven by urgency, chance, and fatal miscalculation – as the defining love tragedy of the Western canon. It remains one of theatre’s most enduring stories, not simply because of its heartbreaking ending, but because of the question it leaves behind:
How do we build a world where love is stronger than hate?
BOOK NOW
Dates: Fri 12, Sat 13, Mon 15,Tues 16 & Wed 17 June @7:30pm
Matinee: Wed 17 June @11:00am
Tickets: $55 Full | $50 Concession | $48 Friends
Location: Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA
Ph: (08) 6212 9292
For interviews and further information please contact:
Irene Jarzabek Publicity
Email: handzon36@gmail.com
Mobile: 0419 192 140
Proudly supported by Dr Heather Zampatti