Romeo and Juliet at Hackney Wick Festival

Romeo and Juliet is playing at Hackney Wick Festival 18-19 September. Photo: Peregrine Blue

One of the highlights of this year’s Hackney Wick Festival on 18-19 September will be LiveSpace Theatre Company’s unique production of Romeo and Juliet.

The classic Shakespeare drama will be broken up into a series of bite-sized chunks, to be staged at various points and times throughout the course of the two-day festival.

More unusually still, LiveSpace will be involving local residents in all aspects of the performance, including production, acting, singing, and propmaking.

LiveSpace Artistic Director Matthew Carter explained: “This is a new idea-venture for us and the festival will be the first experiment, so it’s exciting stuff. We will continue to develop this concept with Romeo and Juliet and other classics as well as mounting straight theatre-events in site-specific locations.

“We chose the play because it’s a story most of the public are already very familiar with. We now need to implement games and tricks to get them to the next level which will be acting out the dance, love and fight scenes with us!”

Participants of all ages are invited to take part in dance, voice and stage combat classes to prepare them for their roles in the performance. LiveSpace’s productions have been described by the Independent as ‘robust, visceral, visually arresting’.

If you would like to be involved in the production of Romeo and Juliet, contact Matthew Carter at livespacetheatrecompany@gmail.com or phone 07960 399 911.