Shakespeare’s greatest love story returns to the Royal New Zealand Ballet in May 2023, in a passionate re-telling choreographed by Andrea Schermoly (Stand to Reason, Within Without).

Exquisite sets and costumes by Academy award-winning designer James Acheson (The Last Emperor, Dangerous Liaisons), first seen onstage in 2017 to universal acclaim, bring to life all the splendour and seduction of Renaissance Verona, swept up in Prokofiev’s exhilarating, sensuous score. The colour and vitality of the marketplace, where bawdy laughter turns to horror in the blinking of an eye, the grandeur of the Capulet palazzo where love blooms, the intimacy of balcony, bedroom, and tomb – the story unfolds inexorably but with the freshness and spontaneity of young dancers giving the performance of a lifetime.

Youthful, impetuous, aflame with the glory of first love and its tragic end, this is a timeless romance that resonates down the ages.