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RICKY: Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet early in his career. It was one of his most popular plays throughout his lifetime.

LEAH: First performed in London in the winter of 1594, it’s the story of young lovers who are doomed to die.

EXTRACT ROMEO AND JULIET – Juliet: My true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up half my worth…

MICHAEL ROSEN:I find sometimes when I watch Romeo and Juliet I feel so sad…

EXTRACT: “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo…”

MICHAEL ROSEN:Because I think at the heart of it is a girl who is brave and courageous…

EXTRACT: Juliet: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art though, Romeo?

MICHAEL ROSEN:And she’s prepared to do things even though everybody has told her that she mustn’t because she loves somebody.

EXTRACT: Romeo: “Then let lips do what hands do. They pray, grant thou lest faith turn to despair.”

PAUL EDMONDSON:They are from opposing families in Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets are at daggers drawn…And Romeo and his friends gate crash a Capulet party…

EXTRACT: Romeo: “What lady’s that which did enrich the hand of yonder knight?

PAUL EDMONDSON:Where he sees Juliet and falls in love at first sight…

EXTRACT: Romeo: “Ah, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”

PAUL EDMONDSON:Romeo’s a bit older and the decide secretly to get married…

EXTRACT: Friar: “Come, come with me and we will make short work for by your leaves you shall not stay alone…till holy church incorporates two in one…”

PAUL EDMONDSON:Romeo fights with Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt…and he’s banished, but not before he manages to spend his wedding night with Juliet and leaves in the early hours of the morning. She’s then forced into another marriage to a man she doesn’t want to marry by her father…and she agrees to do this but manages to escape through taking a potion which makes it look like she’s died…

EXTRACT: Juliet: “This do I drink to thee!”

PAUL EDMONDSON:She’s buried in the family vault. Romeo in his banishment hears that she’s died, comes back intending to kill himself, sees his dead Juliet…

EXTRACT: Romeo: “Arms take your last embrace…”

PAUL EDMONDSON:He thinks she’s dead, kills himself…

EXTRACT: Romeo: “Here’s to my love.”

PAUL EDMONDSON:She wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and kills herself.

EXTRACT: Juliet: “Happy dagger. This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.”

PAUL EDMONDSON:The families do get back together again because they are so devastated at the waste of young life…

EXTRACT: MONTAGUE: “I will raise her statue in pure gold that while Verona is by that name known, there shall no figure at such rate be set as that of true and faithful Juliet.”

MICHAEL ROSEN:So this is a play about what should young people be allowed to do…

EXTRACT: Juliet’s mother: “Tell me, daughter, how stands thy disposition to be married?
Juliet: “It is an honour I dream not of.”

MICHAEL ROSEN:So part of it I think is to say, it’s the older people, the mums and dads in the play, who are wrong because they try to control the feelings of their children.

RICKY: Here’s a challenge for you. Imagine you’re a 21st century news reporter in the time of Romeo and Juliet. How would you tell their story?

LEAH:Pretend you’re writing it for the Newsround website. You’ll need to get in all the background of the Montagues not getting on with the Capulets and explain how it ends in the terrible deaths of the young lovers.

RICKY:Come up with a really grabby headline – something like LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP ENDS IN DEATH!

LEAH:Or maybe love story ends in teen tragedy?

RICKY:Or that. Have fun.