Rosaline is a dark tale of juicy revenge and teenage obsession, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
An echo of Shakespeare’s great tragedy, this contemporary play is composed of a series of fictional ‘missing’ scenes, exposing the role that Rosaline, Romeo’s first love, may have had in the story we know so well.
Set in a small town where chastity is highly prized, religion is tainted and surveillance is rife, three teenagers are burgeoning on adulthood.
It is a dangerous world, lacking in adult figures, except one – the local Friar. The audience follow Rosaline and her manipulation of three men, and their manipulation of her, towards her ultimate goal – love or vengeance.
In development since 2007, Joanna Erskine’s latest work explores the story that has defined our popular romantic consciousness about love.
“Too often women’s narratives are controlled by men,’ says Erskine. “This is a story about a young woman taking back control of her own narrative. About giving a voiceless woman a voice. Rosaline is the centre of Romeo’s world in Shakespeare’s original, then is instantly forgotten. I have always refused to believe that she simply disappeared.”
Aanisa Vylet, Alex Beauman, Jeremi Campese and David Lynch feature. Sophie Kelly directs.
