Romeo and Juliet

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is perhaps Shakespeare's most passionate of plays. The intense action begins with a fight: the long-standing feud between the Montagues and the Capulets flares in the streets of Verona. The young Romeo Montague and his friends brazenly attend a masquerade ball given by the Capulets to celebrate their daughter Juliet's engagement to the young nobleman Paris. It is at the ball that the "pair of star-crossed lovers" first set eyes upon each other.

In a series of tragic choices to stay together, both Romeo and Juliet leave a trail of death and deep sadness: the death of Romeo's beloved friend Mercutio and Juliet's loyal cousin Tybalt; Romeo's banishment from Verona; a hasty and secret marriage to Juliet; a rushed plot to deceive their families, Juliet's beloved Nurse and Romeo's mentor Friar Lawrence each unknowingly contributing to the tragedy that fate has in store for the young couple.

Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare at his story-telling best: love found, love lost -- "for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo".