Juliet and Her Romeo Sex 2012

CAST OF CHARACTERS
ANNAMARIE, plays THE PRINCE.

BECKY, plays TYBALT.
BETHANY, plays GREGORY & CITIZENS.
CAITLIN, plays CITIZENS, then LADY CAPULET.
CHARLOTTE, plays PETRUCHIO & 3RD WATCHMAN.
CHANTELLE, plays LORD CAPULET.
COURTNEY, plays FRIAR LAWRENCE.
DONNA, plays LADY MONTAGUE & CITIZENS.
GEMMA, plays MERCUTIO.
JANE, plays LORD MONTAGUE.
JANET, plays WATCHMAN & CITIZENS.
LINDZI, plays ROMEO, then BALTHAZAR.
LISA, plays PARIS.
MARIA, plays JULIET.
MICHELLE, plays SAMPSON & CITIZENS.
MILLIE, plays ABRAM & 2nd WATCHMAN.
NATASHA, plays LADY CAPULET, then ROMEO.
PEARL, plays NURSE.
TIFFANY, plays BENVOLIO.
MISS CARTER
PRINCIPAL BOOKBINDER
The cast includes 19 females aged 13-15 or 14-16, plus 2 adult
females who may be played by younger actors if necessary.
Juliet and Her Romeos
5
ACT I
SCENE 1 (Class of nineteen GIRLS. All girls have a book before them as
one girl reads aloud from the text.)
JANET: Never was there a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. The End.
MISS C: Thank you, Janet. So, girls, what did you think?
First impressions.
PEARL: Bor-ring.
CHANTELLE: I couldn't understand it. All those wherefores and where art thous and prithee
this and prithee that and all the old-fashioned talking. It was like reading a foreign
language.
JANET: It was like really hard to follow.
DONNA: The way they was all talking it was just like totally
weird.
MISS C: What about the story?
BETHANY: The story was lamedidn't make no sense.
MICHELLE: It was a dumb story.
JANE: I couldn't get into it.
MISS C: The characters, what did you think of the characters?
LISA: I didn't get why they had to kill themselveswhat was
all that about?
BETHANY: I thought they was both a pair of losers.
COURTNEY: I thought Tybalt was cool.
TIFFANY: Yeah, crazy psychopaths, just your type.
COURTNEY: Shut it pizza face.
MISS C: No, quiet nowthat's quite interesting. Lisa, you took issue with the fact that Romeo
and Juliet both died for their love.
LISA: No, Miss, I took issue with the fact that they were both stupid.
MISS C: Stupid?
LISA: I'd never kill myself over some boy.
JANET: How would you know? You've never had a
boyfriend.
LISA: Like you would know.
MISS C: Come on now, could none of you appreciate the depth of passion felt by these starcrossed lovers?
LINDZI: But you don't kill yourself just because you think your boyfriend has killed his self.
JANE: Your boyfriend would have to kill his self if he was seen out with you.
MARIA: Miss Carter? If Juliet was only thirteen and she was going to bed with Romeoisn't
that against the law?
JANET: Miss? How old was Romeo supposed to be?
GEMMA: Wasn't he like a perve, having sex with a thirteen
year old?
MISS C: These were different times girls, different moral standards. Courtney, you thought
Tybalt was a cool character; expand on that a little for me, will you; cool in what way?
COURTNEY: I don't know, I just thought he was tough, you know, didn't take no shit from
anybodysorry Miss.
MILLIE: Romeo killed him, though, didn't he?

CHANTELLE: I thought Romeo was a bit soft.
BECKY: I thought he was gay.
MISS C: I wonder have any of you seen the film version with Leonardo DiCaprio, when he was
playing Romeo?
COURTNEY: Yea, I have, he was fly in that.
GEMMA: Yea they was all cappin' each other. That was a wicked film.
MISS C: There, you see. And in that film they didn't change the language. They used the
original text, the text we've all been reading.
GEMMA: I didn't say I understood what they was saying, I just said I liked all the action, the
fighting and all.
MISS C: Then there's West Side Story, the Bernstein musical, another contemporary take on the
play showing the Montagues and Capulets as rival street gangs.
GEMMA: Didn't see that one.
MISS C: Well, you must. It's a wonderful film.

COURTNEY: West Side Story? Was Leonardo DiCaprio in that?
MISS C: What I'm saying is that these films point up how relevant and up-to-date the story is.
Did any of you not see how both Romeo and Juliet were, in a senserebels if you likerebelling
against their parents, against the older generation, pursuing a kind of forbidden love?
BECKY: What, you mean like they was gay?
MISS C: There are other forms of forbidden love, Becky. I was thinking more of a cultural or
ethnic divide, if you like, represented by the two opposing families, the Montagues and
the Capulets.
LINDZI: Like do you mean like one was black and the other one was white?
MISS C: Something like that, yes.
LINDZI: But I thought they didn't have no black people in them days.
MISS C: Well, maybe not in fifteenth-century Padua.
ANNAMARIE: They were Italians weren't they, Miss? You don't get no black Italians.
MISS C: What I'm trying to get at is that this play in particular in the whole canon of
Shakespeare's plays, this play in particular has many contemporary resonances.
CAITLIN: Excuse me, Miss Carter, will we be tested on it, only I was away when you did the
first half.
MISS C: No, Caitlin, you won't be tested on it, but what I was thinking, what I'd like to
propose... I was thinking it might be rather thrilling for us to really get to know this play inside
out, to really get to grips with it, so I thought it'd be rather fun to mount a class production. So,
come on girls, what do you say?
TIFFANY: You mean do it as a play?
DONNA: You mean do it like acting it out?
LISA: Might be fun for you, Miss Carter, but I don't see no fun
in it.
DONNA: Er, Miss Carter, I don't know if you've noticed,
Miss, but there aren't any boys in this school. How we going
to act it out if there aren't any boys?
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JANE: Are you going to get some boys in Missfrom the
High School?
MISS C: No, what I had in mind is that we mount an all
female production of Romeo and Juliet to present to the parents
at the end of term.
PEARL: You are jokin', aren't you, Miss?
MILLIE: We can't act it out, Miss Carterit's too long.
JANE: And too boring.
CAITLIN: We're not going to do the whole play are we, Miss?
MISS C: Maybe not the whole play, but most of it.
PEARL: Miss Carter, excuse me but you cannot be serious.
MICHELLE: But we'll never learn it. We'll never be able to
remember it.
CHARLOTTE: Will we be forced to do it?
MISS C: No one will be forced, Charlotte.
MILLIE: I'm not doing it.
BETHANY: We can't say those lines, not properly, not out
loud.
MISS C: You've no idea what you can do unless you give it a
try.
MICHELLE: Does this mean some of us will have to play a
boy?
LISA: I'm not playing a boy.
ANNAMARIE: No, you'd be good as a boy, Lisayou've
already got the moustache.
LISA: Shut up, toilet breath.
CAITLIN: There isn't enough time from now until the end of
term.
MISS C: Nonsense, there's plenty of time. It's months away.
BECKY: But Miss Carter, there's kissing and stuff in itI'm
not kissing a girl.
JANE: That's not what I heard.
BECKY: Shut it Lesbo.
JANE: Takes one to know one.
MISS C: Come on girls, that's enough of that.
COURTNEY: You want us to dress up as boys? That is so not
going to happen.
MISS C: In Shakespeare's days, the female roles in all his
works were played by boys. The boys, the youths, all dressed
up as girls. So, in the spirit of that tradition, all we'll be doing
is reversing the process.
CHARLOTTE: Yeah but Miss Carter, boys enjoy dressing up
as girls.
JANET: How do you know, Charlotte?
BETHANY: We'll all end up looking stupid dressed up as
boys.
MISS C: What you will be wearing is not important.
JANE: Oh it is, Miss, it's very important.
MISS C: You'll be playing a role, that's all, a character. Don't
you think it will be exciting, a challenge even, to try and think
yourself into the skin of a male character?
NATASHA: Miss Carter, can I play Juliet?
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DONNA: No, that's not fair; you can't just grab the best part
for yourself. Anyway, you had the best part last time.
MISS C: I'll be deciding who plays what character. I'll
hopefully be allocating roles next week.
LISA: Don't allocate me, Miss, I'm telling you, sorry, Miss
Carter, I can't pretend to be a boy. I'm just not doing it.
MISS C: All of you, you've got a whole week to get used to
the idea. Trust me girls, once you've started, once you've
begun to immerse yourselves in the language, the story, the
fantastic characters, you'll love it. Everyone in this school has
the highest expectations of all of you.
BECKY: Miss Carter, are you trying to turn us into dykes?
MISS C: No, Becky, I'm not trying to turn you into dykes. I'm
trying to turn you into confident young women who have the
courage and ambition to achieve absolutely anything they put
their mind to. You all have huge potential. Here's just another
opportunity for you to realise it.
SCENE 2
(Communal area. The girls are scattered around in groups, some
of them listening to music, some texting, some of them finishing
their packed lunches.)
(GROUP A:)
GEMMA: You know Miss Carter, if she thinks she's going to
get me to act out ShakespeareI do not think so.
JANE: When we were reading it, I couldn't get half of what we
was reading.
GEMMA: I think Miss has lost itI really do. Her thinking
we could do a whole Shakespeare play.
JANE: It's crazy. And anyway, she can't force us to do it.
GEMMA: There'll only be Natasha and the stuck-up crowd
will want to do it.

(GROUP B:)
MILLIE: Are you going to be in it?
CHARLOTTE: In what?
MILLIE: In this play Miss Carter wants us to do.
CHARLOTTE: I don't think anybody's going to be in it.
MILLIE: I'd be in it if I had one of the small parts, but some of
the other parts, there's too much to learn.
CHARLOTTE: I don't know why she had to decide on
Shakespeare. Why couldn't she choose something we could
understand?
(GROUP C:)
JANET: Miss Carter has some funny ideas, don't you think?
ANNAMARIE: What do you mean?
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JANET: This play she wants us all to do.
CAITLIN: Romeo and Juliet, are you talking about Romeo and
Juliet?
JANET: It was hard enough just having to read it.
CAITLIN: Yes, but we have to do at least one Shakespeare.
JANET: Doesn't mean we have to act it out.
ANNAMARIE: Miss Carter must be off her nut if she thinks
anybody will want to do it.
CAITLIN: Yeah, but it helps you to understand it better if you
have to act it out.
JANET: I don't see why we have to do Shakespeare anyway.
Why can't we do something more up-to-date, something we
can understand; I mean, Shakespeare, it's like so last century.

SCENE 3
(Rehearsal area. Four GIRLS are rehearsing with Miss, reading
from the text. This is a first rehearsal for these girls. Becky,
Tiffany, Millie, Natasha, Chantelle, Donna and Jane all sit at the
side, sometimes listening or looking at their lines, sometimes
using their cell phones to text or check messages. Michelle and
Bethany stand holding their texts and reciting.)
SAMPSON: 'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I
have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids. I will
cut off their heads.
GREGORY: The heads of the maids?
SAMPSON: Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.
Take it in what sense thou wilt.
GREGORY: They must take it in sense that feel it.
SAMPSON: Me they shall feel while I am able to stand,
And 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh.
GREGORY: 'Tis well thou art not fish. If thou hadst, thou
hadst been poor-john.
MICHELLE: Miss, sorry, I don't get it. I just don't get it. I
don't get any of it.
MISS C: What is it you don't get, Michelle?
MICHELLE: All of it. Right from the beginning.
BETHANY: Me too, Miss, I mean, right from the first line.
(Checking her script:) "On my word we'll not carry coals"?
What's that about?
MISS C: Well, the two of you, Sampson and Gregory, both
Capulets, remember, are simply stating that on no account will
they allow themselves to be humiliated by any Montagues
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they come across. "Not carry coals" is just like saying, not be
shown up. Not be "dissed," if you like.
BETHANY: Like not take any shitoh, sorry Miss.
MISS C: No, exactly, exactly that.
BETHANY: Like, respect?
MISS C: Well, like what passes for the notion of "respect"
these days.
MICHELLE: What does it mean when he says, "I will take the
wall of any man or maid of Montagues"?
MISS C: Well again, that's like saying, if a Montague comes
the other way along the pavement, I'll make sure that if he
wants to pass me he'll have to move over into the gutter.
MICHELLE: Oh, I get you. You like stand your ground.
MISS C: Stand your ground, yes.
MICHELLE: Then they keep going on about this wall, what's
it say, "thrusting maids to the wall"?
BETHANY: And then cutting off their heads. Cutting off their
heads?
MISS C: Ah yes, cutting off their heads... What it is, the
young men are really competing with each other in terms of
each others, erm, virility, if you like. The reference to maids
and heads...
BETHANY: Oh yeah Miss, it's alright, I get it...
MISS C: No, no, the reference is to maidenhead, virginity.
BETHANY: Really?
MISS C: You'll agree it's something young men do tend to
obsess about.
MICHELLE: You're telling me, Miss.
MISS C: The whole dynamic between these characters, these

two young bloods, is that Gregory is continually suggesting
that Sampson is not really as tough, or if you like, as virile, as
he makes out.
MICHELLE: That is so like my kid brother Missyou should
see him, he's only twelve and he's already swaggering about
like he's some kind of gangster rapper. (Does impersonation:)
"Yo bitch, where you bin hangin? I'm packin heat, man."
MISS C: That's exactly it, Michelle; that's how the two
characters behave, swaggering around like a pair of gangster
rappers.
MICHELLE: And this last bit, this last bit here, calling himself
"a pretty piece of flesh." What, he thinks he's all that?
MISS C: He does, he really fancies himself.
BETHANY: And what's this mean Miss, this "poor john"?
MISS C: I think Gregory might be implying that Sampson is
not as, erm, well-endowed, shall we say, as he claims to be.
BETHANY: Ah, wicked. I get it now. What a pair of...
MISS C: Let's carry on now, from where AbramMillie, that's
you; Millie, are you readyfrom where Abram from the
Montagues comes on stage with Charlotte. Bethany, do the
line.
BETHANY: Draw thy tool!
(They burst into giggles.)
MISS C: Come on now, do it properly.
GREGORY: Draw thy tool! Here comes the house of the
Montagues.
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SAMPSON: My naked weapon is out.
(They giggle again.)
Sorry Miss. My naked weapon is out. Quarrel. I will back
thee.
GREGORY: How? Turn thy back and run?

SAMPSON: Fear me not.
GREGORY: No, marry. I fear thee.
SAMPSON: Let us take the law of our sides. Let them begin.
GREGORY: I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as
they list.
SAMPSON: Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them,
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
MICHELLE: It says "bites his thumb." Why does it say "bites
his thumb"?
MISS C: It's an insult, like a rude gesture.
(Bethany and Michelle look at each other, puzzled.)
Let me show you.
(She demonstrates.)
See? Like that. Today it would be...
MICHELLE: What, like two fingers?
BETHANY: Like they're giving them the finger?
MISS C: That's right. Try it.
(Michelle tries out the gesture and Bethany repeats it.)
Okay, I think you've got the idea. Right, Millie, this is your
line now where you begin to confront your enemies, the
Capulets. Right, off you go. Millie?
ABRAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON: I do bite my thumb, sir.
ABRAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON: Is the law on our side if I say "ay"?
GREGORY: No.
SAMPSON: No, sir. I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
bite my thumb, sir.
GREGORY: Do you quarrel, sir?
ABRAM: Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
SAMPSON: But if you do, sir, I am for you. I serve as good a
man as you.
ABRAM: No better.
SAMPSON: Well, sir.
MISS C: Michelle, when you say "well sir," it's more like
you're taunting Abram, you're spoiling for a fight, both of you,
like you're really saying, "come on, if you think you're hard
enough."
MICHELLE: (Mocking:) "Come on, if you think you're hard
enough." Where did you hear that, Miss?
MISS C: Never mind. You know what I mean. This is where
Benvolio enters the scene, another Montague. Tiffany, get
ready. Tiffany, are you following this?
TIFFANY: Yes, Miss.
MISS C: Bethany, it's your line next. You're goading Sampson
to start the fight, whispering in his ear.
GREGORY: Say "better. Here comes one of my master's
kinsmen."
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SAMPSON: Yes, better, sir.
(Michelle's CELL PHONE goes off.)
MICHELLE: Sorry, Miss, can I just take this?
(She digs the phone out of her pocket, goes to answer.)
MISS C: MichelleI told you right at the start of rehearsal
no cell phones. You were supposed to turn it off.
MICHELLE: Sorry, Miss, I forgot.
MISS C: Please, everybody, no cell phones.

BECKY: I'm just checking my messages, Miss.
MISS C: If you don't mind, Becky, can you just concentrate on
the rehearsal. Michelle, switch off and put it awaynow.
Millie, carry on.
ABRAM: Errr... (Looking for her place:) You lie.
SAMPSON: Draw, if you be menGregory, remember thy
washing blow.
MISS C: Ah, washing blow; hold on a second, that's like...let
me borrow your sword for a moment. (Taking garden cane stick
and demonstrating:) See, like this.
MICHELLE: Will we be having real swords, Miss?
MISS C: Well, stage swords. They'll certainly look like
swords.
(Gives cane back.)
This is where you have your first fight. The four of you.
(They play fight.)
Okay, that's enough. We'll choreograph the fight sequences
properly later, but for now this is where Tiffany comes in as
Benvolio and breaks up the fight. And then straight away it's
you, Becky, Tybalt, you come on straight after. Tiffany, your
line.
BENVOLIO: Part, fools! Put up your swords. You know not
what you do.
MISS C: It's you now, Becky.
TYBALT: What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
Turn thee, Benvolio. Look upon thy death.
BENVOLIO: I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, or
manage it to part these men with me.
TYBALT: What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, as
I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward!
(More play-fighting.)
MISS C: Okay, that's enough. We won't be having the citizens

at this point. I might put that in later, but for now we'll have
Chantelle come on as Lord Capulet with you, Natasha, as
Lady Capulet.
CHANTELLE: Where do you want us to stand?
MISS C: Don't worry about that for the moment; just give us
your line.
LORD CAPULET: What noise is this? Give me my long
sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET: A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a
sword?
MISS C: Ah, you see, what Lady Capulet is saying here...
NATASHA: No, I get it, Miss, she's saying he should have a
crutch rather than a sword like he's too old for fighting.
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MISS C: Very good, Natasha. And straightway, this is where
you, Jane, and you, Donna, Lord and Lady Montague, this is
where you join the scene. Chantelle, you again.
CHANTELLE: I've lost my place.
NATASHA: It's "my sword I say."
CHANTELLE: I know, I know.
LORD CAPULET: My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
and flourishes his blade in spite of me.
MERCUTIO: Thou villain Capulet! Hold me not. Let me go.
LADY MONTAGUE: Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a
foe.
MISS C: And then the prince enters and that's where we'll
leave it for the moment.
BETHANY: It was really kicking off then; wasn't it, Miss?
MICHELLE: So, the kids in them days, they was all carrying
blades? Is that right, Miss?
BETHANY: Just like now, round my way.
TIFFANY: Hey, you know, Miss, this is like, you know, my
Dad, when he was a kid, he got stabbed once trying to break
up a fighthe's still got the scarright here on his side.
SCENE 4
(Communal area. Michelle and Millie are waiting for a bus.
Michelle is on her cell phone.)
MICHELLE: Yeah, we've just finished the rehearsal. We're at
the bus stop. Rehearsal. This play I told you we was doing, at
school. Yeah, me and Millie are in it. We have to pretend to
be boys. It's all about gangs and fighting and that. No, no, it's
alright. It's cool. It's Shakespeare.
MILLIE: Bus is coming.
MICHELLE: Bus is coming. See you later.
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SCENE 5
(Rehearsal area. Lisa and Chantelle are rehearsing together.
They are both still reading from the text.)
MISS C: So what you need to keep in mind is that Paris, a rich
young gentlemen...
LISA: I wish.
CHANTELLE: You wish you was a gentleman?
LISA: No, rich.
MISS C: ...a rich young gentleman is trying to get you,
Chantelle, Lord Capulet, to give, if you like, your permission
for him to...
LISA: Bang his daughter.
MISS C: Not quite, Lisa. Permission to court his daughter.

Lord Capulet tries to discourage him.
CHANTELLE: He thinks she's a bit young.
MISS C: That's right. Do you want to start, Chantelle?
LORD CAPULET: But Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike. And 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.
MISS C: He's harking back here to the warning the Prince
gave them. Okay. Lisa.
LISA: It's funny, my little sister's called Paris. I always
thought it was a girl's name, like Dakota.
MISS C: Of honourable reckoning...
LISA: Sorry, Miss...
PARIS: Of honourable reckoning are you both.
And pity 'tis you lived at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
LISA: (Playing around:) Hey, check out the suit, man.
MISS C: Lisa, stop messing around.
LORD CAPULET: But saying o'er what I have said before.
My child is yet a stranger in the world.
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
PARIS: Younger than she are happy mother's made.
LISA: He likes them young, doesn't he, Miss?
MISS C: Lisa, just read the lines.
LORD CAPULET: And too soon marred are those so early
made.
Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she.
She's the hopeful lady of my earth.

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart.
My will to her consent is but a part.
And she agreed within her scope of choice,
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustomed feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest
Such as I love. And you among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light.
MISS C: That was very well read, Chantelle.
CHANTELLE: I've been practicing.
MISS C: Now all you have to do is learn it off by heart.
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CHANTELLE: You know what, Miss, my mum was only
thirteen when she had me, Miss. She had to leave school and
everything. They won't have had no birth control in them
days though, would they?
SCENE 6
(Communal area. Lisa and Courtney are chatting together.)
COURTNEY: I thought you said you definitely wasn't going
to do it.
LISA: Do what?
COURTNEY: The play. I remember you was saying there was
definitely no way you was going to get dressed up as a boy.
LISA: I don't mind so much now we've started, and you know
what Miss is like. You tell her you definitely don't want to do
something and then before you know it you end up doing it.
And to be honest, you know, if it wasn't for Miss, she really
helped me get into this school. She got me out of a real mess
back then when I was, you know...when I was expelled from
my last school. And anyway you agreed as well in the end.

COURTNEY: Only after Miss had gone on and on about it.
She makes out like it's some huge big deal. Like if you didn't
take part you'd be like missing out on some amazing, lifechanging experience... You'd think it was like we were all
going to be on Britain's Got Talent...
LISA: Who you playing? I forgot.
COURTNEY: A drug dealer.
LISA: A drug dealer?
COURTNEY: No, this Friar Lawrence guy. The priest. It's
just when I read it again, him mixing up all these potions and
pills and herbs and that and supplying these kids on the
street...
LISA: Yeah, I get you.
COURTNEY: And anyway, at least I don't have to dress up
like a pimp, like you.
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LISA: Paris is not a pimp. He's the perfect gentleman.
COURTNEY: Whatever. Guy sounds like a pimp to me.
SCENE 7
(Rehearsal area. Tiffany and Lindzi are rehearsing, still "on the
book.")
MISS C: So, Tiffany, you and Lindzi are best friends,
remember...
TIFFANY: No we're not.
MISS C: Benvolio and Romeo, in the play they are close
friends.
LINDZI: Romeo though, it's such a big part, Miss. I mean,
when you picked me I was like "Oh my God" that you thought
I could do it, that, you know, that you trusted me, only, you
know, I've been reading and studying it and thinking to
myself, hmm, maybe I'm taking on too much here.
TIFFANY: Oh, get over yourself, will you, you're lovin' it.
MISS C: Lindzi, you'll be fine, trust me. And, Tiffany, I have
complete confidence in you also. Benvolio is a wonderful role.
So come on, let's give it our best shot. It's the end of the scene
exchange between the two of you. Romeo is still love-sick
over Rosaline, and Benvolio is telling him, go to the feast, see
Rosaline, compare her with all the other beautiful girls that
will be there and then see how he feels. And of course, Romeo
thinks it impossible that anyone could compare with Rosaline.
You get the idea? Okay, Tiffany.
BENVOLIO: At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves
With all the admired beauties of Verona.
Go thither, and with una...
(Struggles.)
MISS C: Unattainted.
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BENVOLIO: ...with unattainted eye
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
ROMEO: When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires,
And these, who, often drowned, could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!
One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun...
MISS C: One fairer than my love? Put more emphasis on that,
will you, Lindzi? Just those two final lines.
ROMEO: One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.
BENVOLIO: Tut, you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself poised with herself in either eye.
But in that crystal scales let there be weighed
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will show you shining at the feast,
And she shall scant show well that now shows best.
ROMEO: I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,

But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.
LINDZI: Is Rosaline in the play Romeo's girlfriend?
TIFFANY: He dumps her for Juliet. You know, like Patrick
dumped you last month.
LINDZI: Patrick dumped me? Hello. I dumped Patrick, he
never dumped me.
TIFFANY: Whatever.
MISS C: Girls...
TIFFANY: Anyway, he's not wasted any time from what I
heardhe's chasing after Courtney now.
LINDZI: Is he?
TIFFANY: Why, you want him back?
LINDZI: He can chase after whoever he likes for all I care.
MISS C: Anyway, girls, girls. This is a story of young love
remember not a squabble about who's going out with who.
Trevor Suthers
This is a perusal copy only.
Absolutely no printing, copying or performance permitted.
31
SCENE 8
(Communal area. Donna and Bethany are browsing through
teenage magazines.)
DONNA: Do you think this is right? Do you think [Lady
Gaga?] really has dumped [Ben Affleck?]?
BETHANY: It's just gossip. Celebrities are always dumping
each other and then getting back together again just so the
magazines keep writing articles about them.
DONNA: You think so?
BETHANY: It's all PR.

DONNA: Do you think the magazines will write articles about
us when we're famous?
BETHANY: Come onif you're famous, they've got to write
articles about you. That's how come you stay famous.
Rara gaga paparazzi
DONNA: I'll be able to say stuff like "well I first became
interested in acting in high school when my teacher cast me in
a production of Romeo and Juliet."
BETHANY: You're only Lady Montaguebe different if you
were Juliet.
DONNA: Well, you're only...what's his name?
BETHANY: Gregory.
DONNA: Gregory. At least I'm a lady and I don't have to play
a boy.
BETHANY: Yeah but I'm in the fighting scenes which is really
cool. And anyway, I'd rather be a lawyer or an architect than a
dumb actress any day.
(Lindzi comes along to join them.)
LINDZI: Hi guys.
DONNA/BETHANY:
(Mocking:)
Oh
Romeo,
Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo.
LINDZI: Alright. Jealous.
DONNA: How are you going to remember it all, Lindzi? I've
only got a few lines and I'm already scared I'll forget them all.
LINDZI: It's not as tough as you think. Miss has already said I
don't have to learn all of it. Just the bits...you know, the
important bits. She's already cut loads of scenes.
BETHANY: Hey, she better not cut my scene. I've only got
one.
DONNA: So what's it like kissing Maria? Do you give her the
tongue?
LINDZI: Yeah, I've heard it all before. This is what everybody
says. Listen, we haven't even done those bits yet.
BETHANY: Bet you're gagging for it.
LINDZI: Leave it out will you, Bethany? You don't hear me
calling you a dyke when you're pouncing around in your
jacket and your tights, flashing your sword about.
BETHANY: Okay. Fair point. Sorry, Lindzi.
LINDZI: I wanted to ask you guys about Patrick.
BETHANY: I thought you'd dumped him.
LINDZI: No, I have; I just wanted to ask if you'd heard
anything about him and Courtney.
BETHANY: Patrick and Courtney? I thought Courtney was
going round with Adam. She's been with Adam for ages.
33
DONNA: I can't see how she'd have the time to date anybody
else. At this school they load you up with so much homework
and stuff, nobody ever gets time to see anybody.
LINDZI: That's what I thought. I was just a bit worried she
might be two-timing Adam with Patrick.
DONNA: What if she is? Why should you careanyway,
you've got Maria now.
LINDZI: Oh give it a rest will you.
SCENE 9
(Rehearsal area. Pearl, Maria and Natasha are rehearsing, still
working from the text.)
NURSE: ...Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age.

Wilt thou not, Jule?" It stinted and said "ay."
JULIET: And stint thou too, I pray thee, Nurse, say I.
PEARL: That's a really long speech, Miss. Do I really have to
learn all of it? It's nearly two pages.
MISS C: Don't worry, Pearl, you have plenty of time to learn it
and I'll be working with you on it later, okay? Pearl? Next
line?
NATASHA: (Pointing out:) "Peace I have done."
PEARL: Oh yeah.
NURSE: Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
Thou wast the prettiest babe that ever I nursed.
And I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish.
LADY CAPULET: Marry, that "marry" is the very theme
I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
JULIET: It is an honor that I dream not of.
NURSE: An honor! Were not I thine only nurse,
I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy teat.
PEARL: Sorry, Miss, I don't get this. How can you suck
wisdom from... does she mean her nipples?
MISS C: The nurse is actually referring to Juliet's mother.
Gaining knowledge through...well, breast-feeding. Only in
35
this instance, Juliet would have had a wet nurse, most likely
the Nurse.
PEARL: Now I'm even more confused. I'm never going to get
this.
MISS C: Don't worry about it for now. Let's press on.
Natasha?
LADY CAPULET: Well, think of marriage now. Younger than

you
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem
Are made already mothers. By my count,
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
NURSE: A man, young lady! Lady, such a man
As all the world. Why, he's a man of wax.
PEARL: What's a "man of wax," Miss? I fancy one of those.
MISS C: It's a reference to Paris being...perfectly formed.
PEARL: Mmm, nice.
NATASHA: Shall I carry on?
LADY CAPULET: Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
NURSE: Nay, he's a flower. In faith, a very flower.
MISS C: Can we hold it there for a moment?
NATASHA: Are we not doing my speech? I've learnt most of
it.
MISS C: That's excellent, Natasha. I just want to start this
section again first.
PEARL: Who's playing Paris?
MARIA: Lisa. I think it's Lisa.

PEARL: Lisa gets to play a perfectly formed gentleman and I
get to be a fat old woman. Are you trying to tell me
something, Miss?
MISS C: Don't be silly, Pearl. You could just as well have
played Paris.
PEARL: Really? Anyway, I don't mind being the Nurse. She's
a right chatterbox, though. Reminds me of my Aunt Latisha.
She does go on, Miss. But I'm really glad I'm playing a girl,
that we don't have to dress up as boys. But there's not many
girls in this, is there, Miss? I'm really glad you gave me a girl
part, Miss, even if she is a batty old woman.
MARIA: Excuse me, Miss.
(Maria makes to take Miss aside.)
I just wondered, Miss, I just wondered why you picked me to
play Juliet. Shouldn't you have picked Natasha? She's really
good. She's always been the best at drama.
MISS C: Maria, remember this, I have huge faith in all of you
girls to give your very best effort to any role I ask you to play.
Almost any of you could have played Juliet. I just thought
that you in particular, Maria, had the right spirit for the role
and I know you'll give me your hundred percent commitment
and also, I hope, really enjoy playing it. You do like playing
Juliet don't you?
MARIA: Oh yes, Miss. I love it.
SCENE 10
(Communal area. Natasha, Janet, Caitlin, Annamarie are
present.)
ANNAMARIE: It's so unfair, you know.
NATASHA: What's unfair?
ANNAMARIE: You not getting one of the big parts. Miss
giving the best parts to Lindzi and Maria when everybody
knows you're the best at drama.
JANET: She could have at least given you Mercutio. Giving
Gemma Mercutio. It's a joke. Gemma can hardly read, let
alone act.
NATASHA: I'm not really that bothered to tell you the truth.
It's no big deal. I think Miss is just trying to give other girls a
chance.
CAITLIN: A chance to look stupid. There's no way somebody
like Pearl is going to learn all her speeches.
JANET: I heard that Miss is cutting some scenes.

ANNAMARIE: I thought she said we were going to do it all?
CAITLIN: She can cut my scene if she likes. There's nothing
in it.
NATASHA: It wouldn't surprise me, you know. Miss is really
smart when you think about it. If you tell someone they've got
to learn hundreds of lines and they try to do it and then panic
and then you tell them, it's okay, you only really have to learn
a few dozen lines, then you get all relieved and stop panicking
and think it's not too difficult to learn the lines you've been
given.
CAITLIN: I still think you'd have been a better Juliet than

Mariashe's such a nerd. You know she lives with her
grandmother in that big old house, just the two of them.
ANNAMARIE: They say her grandmother's a bit, you know,
senile and Maria has to like do everything for her. And I
mean, you knoweverything. That's why she has that funny
smell.
NATASHA: That doesn't make her a nerd.
ANNAMARIE: It does in my book.
JANET: She does wear geeky clothes and she's always on her
own in the library, you have to admit that.
CAITLIN: I tell you something, I bet by the time this show
goes on Miss will have wished she'd have done Mary Poppins
instead.
39
SCENE 11
(Rehearsal area. Tiffany, Gemma and Lindzi are rehearsing with
some confidence.)
MERCUTIO: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,

Making them women of good carriage.
This is she
ROMEO: Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
Thou talk'st of nothing.
GEMMA: Miss, do you really expect me to learn all that? It's
nearly two pages. I've no idea what it's about.
MISS C: It's about sex, Gemma.
GEMMA: Really? Cool.
MISS C: Now can you carry on.
MERCUTIO: True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being angered, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.
BENVOLIO: This wind you talk of, blows us from ourselves.
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
ROMEO: I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels, and expire the term
Of a despisd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.
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40
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BENVOLIO: Strike, drum.
GEMMA: Mercutiohe's really full of himself, isn't he? He
sounds a real mouthy know-it-all.
TIFFANY: Yeah, I wondered why Miss chose you to do it.

GEMMA: At least it's a bigger part than you got.
MISS C: Girls, please, this is ridiculous. Do I really have to
tell you that the size of the part doesn't matter? We're all
working together hereeach part is equally important in
order to properly tell the story, so don't ever let me hear you
arguing over who's got the biggest part. The play itself is the
thing and far more important than who plays what.
Understood?
LINDZI: Miss, you know in that last speech, does Romeo have
like a, what do you call it, a premonition that he's going to die?
MISS C: Yes he does.
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41
SCENE 12
(Communal area. Natasha sits alone, eating a sandwich as
Maria, loaded up with books, walks by.)
NATASHA: Hey, Maria.
MARIA: Oh, hi, Natasha.
NATASHA: You want a sandwich?
MARIA: No thanks.
NATASHA: I've got a biscuit. Have a biscuit.
MARIA: Okay, thanks.
(Maria puts down books and sits beside her.)
NATASHA: Library?
MARIA: Yeah, just some science books for this project I'm
finishing for Mr Appleby.
NATASHA: You into science?
MARIA: Oh yeah, I love science.

NATASHA: Science is okay, only I find Mr. Appleby a bit,
you know, dry.
MARIA: He is a bit. Not like Miss Carter.
NATASHA: No, Miss Carter's great. I'm glad she made us all
do this Shakespeare. It's funny, the other girls, all the ones
who said they wouldn't be seen dead doing it and now they're
all bitchin' with one another over who's got the best part. I
reckon you've got the best part.
MARIA: I was amazed Miss picked me for Juliet.
NATASHA: I wasn't.
MARIA: You'd probably do it better.
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42
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NATASHA: No I wouldn't, I think you're great in it. Anyway,
I enjoy playing your mom, it's fun to do something different.
MARIA: It's very different for me.
NATASHA: You not like drama?
MARIA: No, it's just I've never done much.
NATASHA: You wouldn't think so.
MARIA: Thanks. You're obviously really good at it. I
suppose you want to be an actress when you leave school.
NATASHA: No, I want to be a trucker. (Laughing:) No, course
I want to be an actress. It's all I've ever wanted. Thank God I
got into this school.
MARIA: Me too.
NATASHA: You in big trouble at school? Well, I suppose you
must have been to get a place here.
MARIA: I didn't really go to school at all before I came here. I

was bullied a lot so just didn't bother going and I had, you
know, responsibilities at home.
NATASHA: Yeah, I heard, your gran, you look after your
gran. So what happened to your parentsyou don't mind me
asking do you?
MARIA: They were you know...druggies and they both...it
was a sort of an accident. When I was ten.
NATASHA: Sorry.
MARIA: So I went to live with my gran but she got ill and I
sort of take care of her now.
NATASHA: You look after your gran?
43
MARIA: Yeah, I get a check and DHS, and my Case Worker
gets people in to watch her when I'm at school.
NATASHA: So, you don't get out much.
MARIA: Not much.
NATASHA: Look, why don't I come round one evening and
we can rehearse some scenes together.
MARIA: That'd be great, only my gran gets easily confused if
there's someone she doesn't know...
NATASHA: Well, come round to mine thenI have to warn
you, it's a bit chaotic but there's always my room.
MARIA: I'd like that. Thanks.
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44
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SCENE 13
(Communal area. Lindzi is on her cell phone.)
LINDZI: No, Just chillin', you know, what about you? Oh
yeah, I know that one, no it's bitchin'How'd you get it, I

thought it was supposed to be 18 only? Right. No, nothing
much. Oh, who told you that? Yeah, it's cool. I wish we
could have real boys in it thoughYeah it is difficult to learn
it all but our teacher has cut down some of the really long
speeches so it's, you know, no I just wanted to ask you like, I
know you and me, that's fine, like we both agreed, see other
people and everything, and I'm cool with that, only somebody
told me you were seeing Courtney Slater? No, I'm not
saying that, it's fine if you are, I've got no problem with that,
only I don't know if you know this but Courtney's been going
out with Adam for a long time now, you know, Adam Briggs,
he's a senior at your school, bit of a psycho. I'm just saying, if
she's split up with Adam that's fine, only Adam's a bit, well,
you know what Adam can be likeBecky's party? Remember
that? When he threw a chair through the window? Anyway,
I'm not making a big deal, just warning you, so you know.
Anyway, I gotta go, rehearsal, let you get back to destroying
the Russian mafia or saving the universe or whatever. Ciao.
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45
SCENE 14
(Rehearsal area. Chantelle, Becky, Lindzi, Pearl, Maria,
Charlotte & Janet are still holding their scripts but it is obvious
at this stage that they are beginning to get on top of the text and
if anything are over-acting their roles. Pearl and Maria are
standing to the side.)
ROMEO: (To a Servingman:) What lady is that which doth
enrich the hand Of yonder knight?
CHARLOTTE: I know not, sir.
ROMEO: Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear,
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT: This, by his voice, should be a Montague. (To his

Page:) Fetch me my rapier, boy.
(Janet goes to get a sword.)
What, dares the slave
Come hither, covered with an antic face,
To sneer and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honor of my kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.
(Janet gives Becky her sword as Chantelle moves in.)
LORD CAPULET: Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore
storm you so?
TYBALT: Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe,
A villain that is hither come in spite
To scorn at our solemnity this night.
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LORD CAPULET: Young Romeo is it?
TYBALT: 'Tis he, that villain Romeo.
LORD CAPULET: Content thee, gentle cousin. Let him alone.
He bears him like a portly gentleman,
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-governed youth.
I would not for the wealth of all the town
Here in my house do him disparagement.
Therefore be patient. Take no note of him.
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.
TYBALT: It fits when such a villain is a guest.
I'll not endure him.
LORD CAPULET: He shall be endured.
What, goddam boy! I say, he shall. Go to.
Am I the master here, or you? Go to.
You'll not endure him! God shall mend my soul,
You'll make a mutiny among my guests.

You will set cock-a-hoop. You'll be the man!
TYBALT: Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.
LORD CAPULET: Go to, go to.
You are a saucy boy. Is it so, indeed?
You must contrary me? Marry, 'tis time.
Well said, my hearts! You are a princox, go.
Be quiet, orMore light, more light! For shame!
I'll make you quiet. What, cheerly, my hearts!
MISS C: Hold it a second, Chantelle; these last couple of lines,
it's a little complicated. What it is, you're split between
addressing your guests and your servants and yet still
continuing to scold Tybalt. Like this...
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47
(Miss does the lines moving from one side to the other.)
Marry, tis time. Well said, my hearts! You are a princox,
go. Be quiet, orMore light, more light! For shame!
I'll make you quiet. What, cheerly, my hearts!
CHANTELLE: I get you, Miss.
(Chantelle repeats the actions Miss has demonstrated.)
MISS C: Now you, Becky.
TYBALT: Patience perforce with willful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall.
MISS C: It's bitterest "gaul." It's pronounced "gaul."
BECKY: But it doesn't rhyme.
MISS C: Don't worry about it, Becky.
BECKY: Are you going to do the kissing scene now, Miss?
Can we watch?
MISS C: I told you, Lindzi and Maria are doing their scenes
separately for the time being.
(Becky and Janet give an "Oooo.")
CHANTELLE: Miss, you know just then when Lord Capulet is
trying to get Tybalt to cool it, I swear, it was so just like at my
brother Nathan's twenty-first. Nathan's ex girlfriend, Alicia,
fat pig, she turns up out of nowhere with her new boyfriend,
Craig something, trying to crash the party, sort of rubbing
Nathan's nose in it, really, or trying to get back with him, and
this Craig, yeah, it turns out had once sold Playdo these
raggedy speakers which had pieces missing and he wouldn't
give him his money back, Playdo, right, he's like my other
cousin and anyway, when Playdo spotted Craig he just went
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48
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like crazy and shit and wanted to fight him right then and
there but then my dad, he just wasn't having any of it and he
says if Playdo started anything he'd throw him out his self and
that Craig was a guest in his house even if he was a knock-off
artist and going with Nathan's ex and he had to like respect
the occasion and everything so Playdo just had to swallow it
but he got him back later and broke his finger.
MISS C: Really? Why is your cousin called Playdo?
CHANTELLE: I think it's because he's a bit fat, Miss.
MISS C: Okay. Right. I just want to move quickly to the end
of this scene with Maria and Pearl. Maria? Pearl? Pearl, will
you leave that cell phone? How many times...
PEARL: Right, Miss. Just a sec.
MISS C: It's page twenty-three at the top, Maria, "Come hither
Nurse."
JULIET: Come hither, Nurse. What is yond gentleman?
MISS C: Don't forget to point to them.
JULIET: What is yond gentleman?

NURSE: The son and heir of old Tiberio.
JULIET: What's he that now is going out of door?
NURSE: Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio.
JULIET: What's he that follows here, that would not dance?
NURSE: I know not.
JULIET: Go ask his name.
MISS C: Just split apart. Maria? Move forward a little. It's
like you're confiding in the audience.
JULIET: If he be married,
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49
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
MISS C: Pearl, you come back.
NURSE: His name is Romeo, and a Montague,
The only son of your great enemy.
JULIET: My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathd enemy.
MISS C: Excellent girls. Hopefully we'll be playing your
scenes off the book next week.
PEARL: Off the book?
MISS C: Yes, why not. I'm sure you'll have learnt most of it
by this time next week. And remember, Pearl, you only have
to learn the lines I've marked for you.
PEARL: Yeah, okay.
MARIA: Miss Carter, you know with Romeo and Juliet with
the scenes we've been doing?
MISS C: Yes?
MARIA: What I was thinking, I know it's in the play and
everything but...
MISS C: Yes?
MARIA: Don't you think it's a bit quick?
MISS C: A bit quick?
MARIA: Romeo and Juliet, don't you think they get together a
bit quick? They've only just met at this party and straight
away they fall in love and start kissing without even knowing
anything about each other.
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MISS C: Have you never heard of love at first sight?
MARIA: Well, yeah, I suppose it's possible.
MISS C: Do you believe it?
MARIA: I'd sort of...like to believe it.
MISS C: Well, as long as you can play it and convince an
audience that it's possible. Can you do that for me?
MARIA: I'll try, Miss.
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51
SCENE 15
(Principal's office.)
PRINCIPAL: So, it's going well?
MISS C: It's coming together, slowly.
PRINCIPAL: It's a radical concept, I'll give you that.
However, I do have one or two issues that I think I should
raise now rather than waiting till later.
MISS C: Issues?
PRINCIPAL: I'm firstly rather concerned about the amount of
time that seems to be taken up with this particular
productionI know it's ambitious, and I welcome that, only
I'm a little worried the girls' other studies might be suffering.
MISS C: Well, I've tried to arrange things so that none of the
girls ends up having to learn an inordinate amount of text...
PRINCIPAL: What about Lindzi and Maria?
MISS C: I have trimmed some of the longer speeches for them.
PRINCIPAL: And also, arguably, I know this is a little late in
the day to be raising this matter...
MISS C: We have been rehearsing for five weeks...
PRINCIPAL: But I'm more than a little concerned with some
of the subject matter.
MISS C: Subject matter? Romeo and Juliet is a set text.
PRINCIPAL: And as a piece of text it's fine, but having the
girls actually act it out... What I'm saying is it's all very well
reading the text of some of the, let us say, more violent scenes,
but something else having the girls waving sticks and daggers
about and pretending to stab each other.
MISS C: I think you'll concede that there's a little more to
Romeo and Juliet than waving sticks about.
PRINCIPAL: Exactly, underage sex, gang fights, murder,
vengeance and a double teenage suicide.
MISS C: We can't exactly hide these things from the girls,
pretend they don't existas you know, nearly all of the girls
already have first-hand experience of these and even worse
occurrences both within and around their own families. The
neighborhoods some of the girls come from are riddled with
gang violence. I'm absolutely convinced that by acting out
some of these scenarios in the context of a classic piece of
literatureremember, Shakespeare does not indulge in any
kind of glorification of violence. In fact, he shows how these
irrational enmities can lead to tragic consequencesthis isn't
Rambo and Juliet. Sorry, I've lost my thread.
PRINCIPAL: You're convinced.
MISS C: Yes, I'm convinced the experience will prove both
cathartic and instructive and, if anything, turn them away
from these evils. Surely this is what this school in particular is
all about.
PRINCIPAL: Well, let's just say that for now I'll try and keep
an open mind on the subject. How have you approached the,
erm, rather more sexually explicit scenes involving the main
characters?
MISS C: Well, sensitively, I hope.
PRINCIPAL: Indeed. Sensitivity has to be something of a
watchword in this particular establishmentwe're very much
under scrutiny. I know our girls can be difficult, but they're
nothing compared to some of the board members.
MISS C: The board members?
53
PRINCIPAL: There have been some concerns raised. It's the
parents I'm more worried about.
MISS C: Mrs. Bookbinder, I think you know as well as I do
that almost all of our parents have fought tooth and nail to get
their girls accepted in this school. I doubt we'll get any
complaints. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that this
school was established partly as a result of parental pressure,
with the mainstream schools not being able to cope and the
fears about what their children were being exposed to...
PRINCIPAL: No, Julia, you don't need to remind me. I know
these girls' histories only too well. I also know many of them
come from a culture of street gangs, random shootings and
knife attacks. I only hope Shakespeare's particular take on
gang violence proves salutary. Which brings me to another
matter, not, I'm afraid, unrelated. The police have contacted
me asking to interview Natasha.
MISS C: Oh dear. Not Natasha.
PRINCIPAL: It concerns her brother Danny, or "Blade" as I
believe he is known amongst his peers. It seems he's been
involved in a stabbing.
MISS C: Oh my goodness, is he...
PRINCIPAL: Not as the victim but the perpetrator.
MISS C: But he's only, what, he can't be more than sixteen,
seventeen.
PRINCIPAL: He's disappeared and the police, not
unnaturally, are rather keen to question him. That's why they
wish to talk to Natasha. I wonder, could you be there when
they interview heryou know what her family is like.
MISS C: Of course.
SCENE 16
(Communal area. Lindzi sits with her text, reading then
repeating her lines in her head as Natasha approaches.)
NATASHA: Hi, Lindzi.
LINDZI: Hi, just learning my lines.
NATASHA: It's hard, isn't it, especially those long speeches.
LINDZI: It gets better the more you go over it. I got the DVD
of that modern Romeo and Juliet, you know, the one Miss was
going on about, with Leonardo DiCapriohe looks really
young in it.
NATASHA: Does it not worry you, though, the
responsibility?
LINDZI: What responsibility?

NATASHA: Having to carry the whole show.
LINDZI: I'm not carrying the whole show. Maria's got just as
much as me to learn.
NATASHA: Have you been going over the lines together?
LINDZI: A bit. Only, don't say anything but I'm not that keen
on Mariashe's a bit of a hippy, if you know what I mean,
and her breath smells of hummus. I'm really surprised Miss
didn't pick you to do Juliet.
NATASHA: I was the lead last time in Wizard of Oz so she
probably thought I'd had my turn.
LINDZI: Yeah but we were only eleven or twelve when we
did that. I remember, I was a munchkin. Annamarie was
Wicked Witch of the Westtype casting or what?
NATASHA: I can run some lines with you if you like. I've
already learnt most of my bit.
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LINDZI: That's great. Thanks, Natasha. Oh and yeah, sorry
to hear about your brother with the cops chasing him. Have
they found him?
NATASHA: I hope they never find him.
LINDZI: Yeah, me too.
NATASHA: No, seriously, if I never see him again it'll be too
soon...he was the one who got me into...well, got me into all
that trouble I had when I was a kid. He was the reason I got
chucked out of so many schools. He was always using me as a
cover. Made my life hell, the selfish little... If they do find
him, I hope they lock him up and throw away the key. Which
scene are you studying? Do you want me to read Juliet?
SCENE 17
(Communal area.)
ANNAMARIE: Did you hear about Natasha's brother?
JANET: Danny?
ANNAMARIE: Blade. They call him Blade.
JANET: I heard he'd stabbed some kid.
ANNAMARIE: I heard the other kid started it and Danny was
like defending himself.
JANET: I heard this kid was just trying to get away and they
was all chasing him.
ANNAMARIE: Well I heard all Danny was doing was trying
to break up a fight between these other kids.
JANET: I heard it was like a turf war and this other kid was
like trying to muscle in on Danny's territory.
ANNAMARIE: Whatever way, it must be tough on Natasha.
JANET: I heard the cops took her in for questioning and tried
to get her to tell where he was hiding.
ANNAMARIE: He'll be miles away by now, won't he?
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SCENE 18
(Rehearsal area. Miss is rehearsing with Lindzi and Maria, who
have learnt most of this scene, but are still unsteady in the
execution. They face away from each other as they recite their
lines.)
ROMEO: But soft! What light through yonder window
breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious...
MISS C: Her vestal livery...

ROMEO: Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!
It is my lady. Oh, it is my love.
Oh, that she knew she were!
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand
That I might touch that cheek!
JULIET: Ay me!
ROMEO: She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being over my head,
As is a wingd messenger of heaven
Unto the white...
MISS C: Upturn-ed...
ROMEO: Unto the white, upturnd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.
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JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet
ROMEO: Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
JULIET: 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name, which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
ROMEO: I take thee at thy word.
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized.
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
JULIET: What man art thou that, thus...
MISS C: Bescreened...
JULIET: Thus bescreened...
MISS C: Thus bescreened in night so stumblest...
JULIET: No, I know it... What man art thou that, thus
bescreened in night, So stumblest on my counsel?
MISS C: Just do that line again, Maria, and remember to be
startled, just realising that someone has overheard you.
MARIA: Will we be having a balcony, Miss?
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MISS C: No, we'll be arranging it so that Romeo is observing
you from a short distance away and then comes forward to
make himself known.
LINDZI: What, I sort of jump out on her?
MISS C: Not exactly. Your line, Maria.
JULIET: What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night,
So stumblest on my counsel?
MISS C: You face each other now.
ROMEO: By a name
I know not how to tell thee who I am.
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself
Because it is an enemy to thee.
Had I it written, I would tear the word.
JULIET: My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
Of that tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound.
Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

ROMEO: Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.
JULIET: How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
ROMEO: With love's light wings did I...
MISS C: O'erperch
ROMEO: ...did I o'erperch these walls,
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do, that dares love attempt.
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.
JULIET: If they do see thee they will murder thee.
ROMEO: Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet,
And I am proof against their...
MISS C: Enmity...
ROMEO: ...enmity.
JULIET: I would not for the world they saw thee here.
ROMEO: I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes,
And but thou love me, let them find me here.
My life were better ended by their hate
Than death...prorogud, wanting of thy love.
MISS C: I'm sorry we're going to have to stop it there, we've
just run out of time, but that was lovely, the both of you.
You've made such an effort learning the lines. I'm so proud of
you. Well done.
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SCENE 19
(Communal area. Maria is taking a call on her cell phone.)
MARIA: What? You've got your own copy of it? Oh, that's so
sweet. Really? Well, yeah, alright then. Can we do Act 2
Scene 1, the bit where Romeo and Juliet meet, page 25. Have
you found it? Yeah, that's right. Okay, then, you start.
(Listening:) Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this, For saints have hands
that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy
palmers' kiss. (Listening:) Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use
in prayer. (Listening:) Saints do not move, though grant for
prayers' sake. (Listening:) I shall forget, to have thee still stand
there, Remembering how I love thy company. (Listening:) Yes,
I know what it says.
(Maria mimes a kiss into her cell phone.)
It's your line. (Listening:) Then have my lips the sin that they
have took. (Listening. Miming a kiss again:) You kiss by the
book. (Listening:) I think it means you've had a lot of practise.
This is where the nurse comes in. Oh I wish you were really
doing Romeo instead of boring Lindzi. You read really well
and you're a much better kisser. This is fun, shall we do
another scene? It's a bit further on, page 30, the "parting is
such sweet sorrow" bit.
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SCENE 20
(Rehearsal area. Lindzi, Courtney and Miss C. are rehearsing.)
COURTNEY: Will I be dressing up as a Friar, Miss?
MISS C: We'll find something suitable.
COURTNEY: I don't want to wear anything old or smelly.
LINDZI: (Aside:) You'll end up looking like Maria.
(They snigger.)
MISS C: What was that?
LINDZI: Nothing, Miss.
MISS C: Now, can we get on? Courtney? You do know your
next lines?
COURTNEY: Of course I do.
MISS C: Okay. Lindzi, it's you.
ROMEO: Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set
On the fair daughter of rich Capulet.
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,
And all combined, save what thou must combine
By holy marriage. When and where and how
We met, we wooed and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray
That thou consent to marry us today.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Holy Saint Francis, what a change is
here!
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine
Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
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How much salt water thrown away in waste
To season love that of it doth not taste!
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not washed off yet.
If ever thou wast thyself and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline.
And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence then
Women may fall when there's no strength in men.
COURTNEY: See, Miss, I told you I'd learnt it allI even
know what some of it means. He's like taking the piss out of
Romeo because first he says he's in love with Rosaline and
now he's totally in love with Juliet and Friar Lawrence is
likeyeah, sure, that's what you said last time and he tells
him, like, that last line, if you can't make your mind up and
just hop from one girl to another then don't be surprised if she,
like, you know, does the dirty on you.
MISS C: Yes, Courtney, I'd say you'd pretty much nailed that.
COURTNEY: Thanks, Miss. You only really start to get it
after you've read it a few times.
MISS C: Shall we just finish the sceneLindzi?
ROMEO: Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
ROMEO: And badest me bury love.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Not in a grave,
To lay one in, another out to have.
ROMEO: I pray thee, chide not. Her I love now
Doth grace for grace and love for love allow.
The other did not so.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Oh, she knew well
Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell.
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But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be,
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households' rancor to pure loove.
MISS C: It's love.
COURTNEY: Yeah, I know, Miss. Just kidding.
MISS C: Come on, finish the scene.
ROMEO: Oh, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Wisely and slow. They stumble that run
fastefast.
MISS C: That was brilliant. Well done, girls.
LINDZI: Can Romeo and Juliet get married without their

parents' permission then?
MISS C: Yes, they couldFriar Lawrence hopes the marriage
will heal the rift between the two families.
LINDZI: You can't do that now, though, can youthat
youngour age.
COURTNEY: You thinking of getting married, Lindzi? Who
you thinkin' of marrying?
LINDZI: Not you, that's for sure.
COURTNEY: I can't get marriedI'm a Friar, I'm celibate.
LINDZI: That's not what I heard.
MISS C: Alright girls.
(They move aside.)
LINDZI: Courtney, are you dating Patrick?
COURTNEY: Am I what?
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LINDZI: Are you seeing Patrick?
COURTNEY: Patrick? Why would I want to see Patrick?
Who told you I was seeing Patrick?
LINDZI: Well, are you?
COURTNEY: No I'm not. Who told you that? I hardly have
any time to see Adam let alone anybody else. Are people
saying I'm going round with Patrick? Because if they
are...that's a lie. If Adam hears that people are saying I'm
going round with Patrick, he's going to have a fitwho said I
was seeing Patrick?
LINDZI: It doesn't matter who said if you're not.
COURTNEY: Of course it matters, and anyway, I thought
you'd split up with Patrick.
LINDZI: I have.
COURTNEY: Then why are you bothered whether he's seeing

anybody or not.
LINDZI: Are you sure he hasn't called you or anything?
COURTNEY: Are you trying to get back with him?
LINDZI: (Moving away:) Well, if you're not seeing him then
that's alright then.
COURTNEY: No it's not alright. What if somebody tells
Adam? Look, tell me who said it to you.
LINDZI: Nobody, just gossip.
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SCENE 21
(Communal area.)
LISA: Have you heard, Maria's got a boyfriend.
BETHANY: You're kiddin'.
LISA: I kiddeth you not.
BETHANY: Maria? A boyfriend? Who is it, Count Dracula?
LISA: I don't know who it is exactly but Becky saw her with
this boy in the Adventure Playground and they were all over
each other.
BETHANY: Maria? It's hard to imagine. Becky not say who
he was?
LISA: She didn't recognise him.
BETHANY: Was he fit?
LISA: I don't know, she didn't say, just said she saw them
together and then as soon as Maria like saw her she like
sneaked off with him like she didn't want anybody to see her.
BETHANY: It was probably him didn't want anybody to see
him with Maria.

LISA: Maria's alright. I've got a couple of scenes with her and
when she's like in the play she's different from what she's like
just around school.
BETHANY: You think?
LISA: I used to think she was a bit, you know, serious, a bit
sour-faced, but when she's playing Juliet she like, really comes
to life.
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SCENE 22
(Rehearsal area. Maria and Pearl are in rehearsal "off the book."
Pearl has adopted a broad Scottish/Irish [or some other] accent.)
JULIET: No, no. But all this did I know before.
What says he of our marriage? What of that?
NURSE: Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I!
It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.
My back at other side. Ah, my back, my back!
Beshrew your heart for sending me about,
To catch my death with jaunting up and down!
JULIET: In faith, I am sorry that thou art not well.
Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me, what says my love?
NURSE: Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a
courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I warrant, a
virtuous Where is your mother?
MISS C: No, turn aside when you do that, Pearl.
NURSE: Where is your mother?
JULIET: Where is my mother? Why, she is within.
Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest!
"Your love says, like an honest gentleman,
'Where is your mother?'"

NURSE: O God's lady dear,
Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I swear.
Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
Henceforward do your messages yourself.
JULIET: Here's such a coil. Come, what says Romeo?
NURSE: Have you got leave to go to confession today?
JULIET: I have.
NURSE: Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence's cell.

There stays a husband to make you a wife.
Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks.
They'll be in scarlet straight at any news.
Hie you to church. I must another way
To fetch a ladder, by the which your love
Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark.
I am the drudge and toil in your delight,
But you shall bear the burden soon at night.
MISS C: Pearl, can you just give me that line again, but can
you give it me in a more, erm, suggestive manner?
PEARL: But you shall bear the burden soon at night? Oh I get
it, bear the burden.
MISS C: From "I am the drudge."
NURSE: I am the drudge and toil in your delight,
But you shall bear the burden soon at night.
Go. I'll to dinner. Hie you to the cell.
JULIET: Hie to high fortune! Honest Nurse, farewell.
MISS C: And give her a hug before you exit.
(She does this.)
PEARL: There's a lot of sex in this play, Miss, don't you think?
MISS C: It's a love story, Pearl.
PEARL: Miss, are you sure you're okay with the accent, with
me putting on the accent?
MISS C: As I said before, it's fine, if it's...
PEARL: It's just like the way my Aunt Sylvia talks, you know
in that accent, and she's always making a fuss about nothing
and going on about her aches and pains and everything"my
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oh my what a struggle I've had, you girls have no idea"and
really, doing it like that helps me remember it.
MISS C: You're doing fine, Pearl, absolutely fine.
(Pearl away as Maria approaches.)
MARIA: You know what you were saying, Miss, before, about
there being love at first sight?
MISS C: Yes.
MARIA: Well, I just wanted you to know, I think you might
be right.
(Maria away.)
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SCENE 23
(Communal area. Linzi, Gemma, Becky, Tiffany and Charlotte
are rehearsing the "fight scene" amongst themselves, using their
cane "swords" and fooling around with it. Gemma draws her
sword.)
GEMMA: Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?
BECKY: What wouldst thou have with me?
MERCUTIO: Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine
lives, that I mean to make bold with, and, as you shall use me
hereafter, beat out the rest of the eight.
(Gemma tickles her cane against Becky's cane.)
Will you pluck your sword out by the ears? Make haste, lest
mine be about your ears when it be out.
BECKY: I am for you.
(She draws her cane.)
LINDZI: Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
GEMMA: Mind your own business, you big pussy.
LINDZI: Come on, Gemma, do the line properly.
GEMMA: Come, sir, your passado.
(Gemma and Becky fight.)
LINDZI: (Drawing her cane:) Draw, Benvolio. Beat down their
weapons.
Gentlemen, for shame! Forbear this outrage.
Tybalt, Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath
Forbidden bandying in Verona streets.
Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!
BECKY: Hey, this isn't fair, this is three against one. Come on,
Charlotte.
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(Charlotte gets out her cane and joins in the scrap on Becky's
side.)
GEMMA: Come on, stop now, that's enough, let's get to the bit
where I get stabbed. Lindzi, you're supposed to stand just in
front of me with your sword up.
(Linzi tries to break up the fight. Becky stabs Gemma under
Lindzi's arm)
Ow! You're not supposed to really stab me.
BECKY: Sorry, got carried away.
GEMMA: It's me that'll get carried awayto hospital.
CHARLOTTE: Alright if I do my line nowafter all, I've only

got the one?
GEMMA: Okay.
CHARLOTTE: Are you ready for my big line?
GEMMA: Just get on with it.
CHARLOTTE: Away, Tybalt.
(Charlotte and Becky go and sit down.)
GEMMA: I am hurt.
A plague on both your houses! I am dead.
LINDZI: It's I am 'sped', not 'dead'.
GEMMA: Okay. I am sped. Is he gone and hath nothing?
LINDZI: What, art thou hurt?
GEMMA: Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough.
Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
Who's going to be my page?
TIFFANY: Oh, it'll be Janet or Millie or Caitlinthey've got all
the bit parts.
CHARLOTTE: Hey, do you mind? Miss says there are no bit

parts in Shakespeare.
TIFFANY: Sorry, Charlotte, didn't mean it like that.
LINDZI: Come on, let's carry on.
Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.
GEMMA: That's easy for you to say. You're not the one who
got stabbed. No, it's alright, I know it. No, 'tis not so deep as a
well nor so wide as a church-door, but 'tis enough, 'twill serve.
Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.
Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your
armyou bastard.
LINDZI: (Laughing:) I thought all for the best.
GEMMA: Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. A plague on both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me. I have it,
And soundly too. Your houses!
(Tiffany and Gemma go and sit down.)
ROMEO: This gentleman, the Prince's near ally,
My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt
In my behalf. My reputation stained
With Tybalt's slander. Tybalt, that for an hour
Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate.
GEMMA: (Off:) That's right, you big girly girl.
LINDZI: (Laughing:) Shut up! And...And in my temper
softened valor's steel!
(Tiffany comes back.)
TIFFANY: O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead!
That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
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Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
LINDZI: This day's black fate on more days doth depend.
This but begins the woe others must end.
TIFFANY: Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
(Becky and Charlotte are giggling over something they've been
looking at on their cell phones.)
I said, if you're listening, here comes the furious Tybalt back
again!
BECKY: Oh sorry, is it me?
(Becky over to join them, swishing her cane.)
Right, who wants a piece of me.
LINDZI: Now, Tybalt, take the "villain" back again
That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul

Is but a little way above our heads,
Waiting for yours to keep him company.
Either you or I, or both, must go with him.
BECKY: Thou, wretched boy, that was with him here shalt be
with him hence.
(Linzi and Becky fight till Becky falls.)
BENVOLIO: Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee to death
If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!
ROMEO: Oh, I am fortune's fool!
BENVOLIO: Why dost thou stay?
(Becky gets up.)
BECKY: I tell you what, if it wasn't for the story I'll bet Tybalt
would have kicked Romeo's arse.
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GEMMA: If it wasn't for stupid Romeo getting in the way, I'll
bet Mercutio would have easily kicked Tybalt's arse.
CHARLOTTE: What were they all supposed to be fighting
about anyway?
BECKY: Tybalt had the hump because Romeo gate-crashed
their party.
CHARLOTTE: Imagine what he'd have been like if he knew
Romeo was...you know, doing it with his cousin.
BECKY: He'd have tracked him down and cut it off.
(They laugh.)
No, you're laughing, but it's true. It happened when my big
sister got knocked up. My brothers got the guy, this old guy
and...you know.
LINDZI: I don't believe you.

BECKY: I swear it's true.
TIFFANY: Anyway, it was Mercutio who started the fight. He
was the first one to "draw his tool."
GEMMA: Well, I see Mercutio as the kind of guy who likes
flashing his tool around and sticking it in people's faces.
TIFFANY: Like your brother, Tyrone.
GEMMA: Hey, don't you disrespect my brother.
TIFFANY: You were dissing him yourself, saying he can't
keep it in his pants.
GEMMA: He's my brother, I can diss him if I want to.
CHARLOTTE: Hasn't he got three kids, your brother?
GEMMA: Four. Three and another one on the way.
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TIFFANY: Thinks he's God's gift does your brother.
BECKY: Got the gift of the gab, that's for suregot a real tasty
mouth on him so I've heard (Wiggling her tongue around:)
must run in the family.
GEMMA: (Drawing her cane; jokily:) How dare you insult my
brother! Take that back you wretched dog or feel the cutting
edge of my steel.
BECKY: (Drawing her cane:) Have at you villain!
(They play fight for a while, then Charlotte and Tiffany join in.
Lindzi tries to stop them and suddenly clutches at her eye and
falls to the ground. The girls immediately stop and go to Lindzi
who is crying out in pain. Intermission.)
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ACT II
SCENE 1
(Rehearsal area. We are nearing production. At this stage in
rehearsal, all the girls know their lines and the fight scene has
been choreographed and we see them for the first time in costume
with props. Tiffany, Gemma, Becky, Michelle, Bethany,
Charlotte, Chantelle, Millie, Janet, Natasha, Annamarie, Donna
& Jane all take part.)
BENVOLIO: I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire.
The day is hot; the Capulets, abroad;
And if we meet we shall not escape a brawl,
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.
MERCUTIO: Thou art like one of those fellows that, when he
enters the confines of a tavern, claps his sword upon the table
and says "God send me no need of thee!" and, by the operation
of the second cup, draws it on the drawer when indeed there
is no need.
BENVOLIO: Am I like such a fellow?
MERCUTIO: Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood
as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon
moody to be moved.
BENVOLIO: And what to?
MERCUTIO: Why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a
hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. With
another, for tying his new shoes with old ribbon? And yet
thou wilt tutor me from quarreling!
BENVOLIO: By my head, here comes the Capulets.
MERCUTIO: By my heel, I care not.
(Enter Becky and Charlotte.)
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TYBALT: Follow me close, for I will speak to them.
Gentlemen, good afternoon. A word with one of you.
MERCUTIO: One word with one of us? Couple it with
something. Make it a word and a blow.
TYBALT: You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, if you will
give me occasion.
MERCUTIO: Could you not take some occasion without
giving?
TYBALT: Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo.
MERCUTIO: Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? If
thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords.
(Pats his sword:) Here's my fiddlestick. Here's that shall make
you dance.
BENVOLIO: (Moving Gemma aside:) We talk here in the public
haunt of men.
Either withdraw unto some private place,
And reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.
MERCUTIO: Men's eyes were made to look and let them
gaze.
I will not budge for no man's pleasure.
TYBALT: Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man.
(Natasha enters, now playing Romeo.)
MERCUTIO: But I'll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery.
TYBALT: Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this: thou art a villain.
ROMEO: Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting. Villain am I none.
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Therefore, farewell. I see thou know'st me not.
TYBALT: Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.
ROMEO: I do protest I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.
And so, good Capuletwhich name I tender
As dearly as my ownbe satisfied.
MERCUTIO: O calm dishonourable, vile submission!
(Drawing his sword:) Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?
TYBALT: What wouldst thou have with me?
MERCUTIO: Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine
lives, that I mean to make bold with, and, as you shall use me
hereafter, beat out the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your
sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be
about your ears ere it be out.
TYBALT: I am for you.
(He draws his sword.)
ROMEO: Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
MERCUTIO: Come, sir, your passado.
(Gemma and Becky fight.)
ROMEO: (Drawing his sword:) Draw, Benvolio. Beat down
their weapons.
Gentlemen, for shame! Forbear this outrage.
Tybalt, Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath
Forbidden bandying in Verona streets.
Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!
(Natasha tries to break up the fight. Becky stabs Gemma under
Natasha's arm.)
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PETRUCHIO: Away, Tybalt.

MERCUTIO: I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone and hath nothing?
BENVOLIO: What, art thou hurt?
MERCUTIO: Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough.
Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
(Janet rushes off.)
ROMEO: Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.
MERCUTIO: No, 'tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a
church-door, but 'tis enough, 'twill serve. Ask for me
tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. Why the devil
came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.
ROMEO: I thought all for the best.
MERCUTIO: Help me into some house, Benvolio,
Or I shall faint. A plague on both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me. I have it,
And soundly too. Your houses!
(Tiffany takes Gemma off.)
ROMEO: This gentleman, the Prince's near ally,
My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt
In my behalf. My reputation stained
With Tybalt's slander. Tybalt, that for an hour
Hath been my kinsman! O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
And in my temper softened valor's steel!
(Tiffany returns.)
BENVOLIO: O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead!
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That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
ROMEO: This day's black fate on more days doth depend.
This but begins the woe others must end.

BENVOLIO: Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
(Becky returns.)
ROMEO: Now, Tybalt, take the "villain" back again
That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Waiting for yours to keep him company.
Either you or I, or both, must go with him.
TYBALT: Thou, wretched boy, that didst with him here
Shalt with him hence.
(Natasha and Becky fight till Becky falls.)
BENVOLIO: Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.
Stand not amazed. The Prince will doom thee to death
If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!
ROMEO: Oh, I am fortune's fool!
BENVOLIO: Why dost thou stay?
(Natasha rushes off. Annamarie, Jane, Donna, Chantelle and
Caitlin all enter.)
THE PRINCE: Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
BENVOLIO: O noble prince, I can discover all
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.
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(Caitlin is now playing Lady Capulet and rather makes a meal of
it.)
LADY CAPULET: Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!
O Prince! O cousin! Husband! Oh, the blood is spilled
Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,
For blood of ours shed blood of Montague.
O cousin, cousin!
THE PRINCE: Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

BENVOLIO: Tybalt here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay.
Romeo, that spoke him fair, bade him think
How false the quarrel was and urged withal
Mentioning your high displeasure. All this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bowed,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point.
Romeo, he cries aloud, "Hold, friends! Friends, part!"
And, swifter than his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushesunderneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled.
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertained revenge,
And to it they go like lightning, for ere I
Could draw to part them was stout Tybalt slain.
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
LADY CAPULET: He is a kinsman to the Montague.
Affection makes him false. He speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
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And all those twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give.
Romeo slew Tybalt. Romeo must not live.
THE PRINCE: Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio.
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MERCUTIO: Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio's friend.
His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.
THE PRINCE: And for that offence
Immediately we do exile him hence.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.

Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses,
Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body and attend our will.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
(Miss C gives them all a round of applause.)
MISS C: Wonderful, wonderful, well done everybody. I must
congratulate you all. That was first class, first class. And now,
can you all gather round please, it's very important.
BECKY: How's Lindzi, Miss? Is she okay?
GEMMA: When can we go and see her?
CHARLOTTE: Will she be blind, Miss?
MISS C: Alright girls, everyone now. Just to let you know
Lindzi is faring well. She'll be having a minor operation on
her eye sometime tomorrow. She sends you all her love and
isn't blaming anyone for the accident.
TIFFANY: It really was an accident, Miss.
MISS C: I know.
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TIFFANY: It could have been any of us.
MISS C: I know, I know, we've gone over this a number of
times and I know you're all feeling very bad about it.
CAITLIN: We didn't have anything to do with it, Miss. We
don't have any sword fights.
JANET: It wasn't us who was messing about, Miss.
MISS C: We're viewing the incident as an accident and there's
an end to it. No, I wish to speak to you about something else.
I want to talk to you about something that has been done to

Lindzi, and not just Lindzi, that was clearly not by accident.
I'm talking about YouTube and I can clearly see by the looks
on some of your faces that you already know exactly what I'm
referring to. I'm not talking about a physical injury here; I'm
talking about one of you girls, or one or more of you girls,
deliberately setting out to injure both Lindzi and Maria by
attempting to humiliate them in public. Now why any of
you...
JANE: Miss, why are you talking to just us, why aren't you
talking to all of the class? I don't even have any scenes with
Maria.
MISS C: I will be talking to all of the class, Jane. But at the
moment I'm talking to this group and I expect you all to listen
without interruption. Fortunately that particular video has
now been removed from YouTube, but I only wish we could
as easily remove the distress it has already caused. Lindzi is,
as far as I know, unaware of the posting, but Maria has
certainly seen it. And in a way I doubt whether even Maria
could be in any way more distressed than I was when this
video was brought to my attention. What were you thinking!
For almost ten weeks now we have all been working so hard
on this production, each of you almost visibly improving and
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maturing in your attitude, your empathy, your understanding
your sensitivitiesand then this! A video of two girls kissing,
posted on YouTube for the general amusement of idiots and
morons. Girls, I thought you were above this kind of callous
prank, I really did. I've nothing more to say on the matter
right now and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I want to
know who was responsible because whoever amongst you it
turns out to be, I know I will be not only shocked but bitterly
disappointed.
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SCENE 2
(Communal area. Girls are spread around in different
groupings.)
(GROUP A:)
DONNA: I heard Miss was thinking of cancelling the play.
JANE: She won't do that, not now, not now it's only two
weeks away.
BETHANY: Anyway, she's got Natasha now.
DONNA: No, I meant cancelling it because of that YouTube
thing.
TIFFANY: I heard she got a real telling off from Mrs.
Bookbinder.
MILLIE: Why? It wasn't her fault.
JANE: I wonder who did ithas anybody heard anything?
BETHANY: You don't think Natasha did it, do you, so she
could get the part?
MILLIE: Don't be stupid, it was getting stabbed in the eye was
the reason Lindzi couldn't do Romeoit had nothing to do
with the video.
BETHANY: Still doesn't mean that Natasha didn't post the
video. Everyone knew she was jealous.
DONNA: That YouTube thing, that was mean.
TIFFANY: I never even saw it.
JANE: I saw it. It was nothing really. They just put their lips
together. They was hardly making out or anything.
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MILLIE: This was why Miss rehearsed the kissing scenes
separately, so we wouldn't make fun of them and make them,
like, self-conscious.
TIFFANY: Pretty immature thing to do if you ask me, secretly
try to film them on your cell phone.
DONNA: My cell phone hasn't even got a video app.
TIFFANY: (Sarcastic:) Oh, that's good, so we can rule you out
then, can we?
DONNA: I'm just saying.
(GROUP B:)
COURTNEY: I'm feeling really guilty now.
LISA: What about?
COURTNEY: Lindzi.
LISA: Don't tell me it was you did that YouTube thing?
COURTNEY: No, of course I didn't.
LISA: And it wasn't you that poked her eye out.
COURTNEY: No, it's something else. About Patrick. Lindzi
asked me if I was dating Patrick.
LISA: But I thought you were dating Adam.
COURTNEY: I am dating Adamwell, sort of. I hardly ever
see himyou know what it's like at this school. They think
they can control you by making you do piles of homework.
But Patrick did call me and ask me out.
LISA: And you went?
COURTNEY: It was just for an hour at McDonald's. I wanted
to find out why he'd dumped Lindzi, really. Patrick's not my
type. No, seriously. Anyway, I told Lindzi that I hadn't seen
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him and now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have told her the
truth because I got the feeling she wanted to get back with
him.
LISA: Oh yeah, that's great, that's all she needs to know. First
her boyfriend dumps her, then she gets a poke in the eye with
a stick, then she gets a video posted of her kissing a girl and
now you say her ex-boyfriend's been sniffing round after you.
It really is Lindzi's year, isn't it.
(GROUP C; Janet, Michelle, Gemma, Becky, Charlotte:)
GEMMA: We should go and see Lindzi. She's got her
operation tomorrow.
CHARLOTTE: God, what if she loses an eye and it's all our
fault?
GEMMA: It was nobody's fault.
BECKY: That's easy to say.
JANET: What I want to know is how come Natasha could just
step into the role, Romeo, just like that, knowing all the lines
and everything.
MICHELLE: Well, she's good at learning lines, that's why she
was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She's easily the best at
drama.
CHARLOTTE: I know it's a bit mean, but she is better than
Lindzi was.
GEMMA: Yea, you're right, that is a bit mean.
JANET: They still haven't found Blade, you knowNatasha's
brother. You think Natasha's hiding him?
MICHELLE: Where? In her locker?
JANET: Funny.
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GEMMA: I heard she wants him caught. It was him got her
into drugs.
MICHELLE: Her own brother?
GEMMA: It happens.
(GROUP D; Caitlin, Annamarie, Chantelle, Lisa:)
CAITLIN: Guess who was at the hospital when me and
Chantelle went.
ANNAMARIE: Well, go on.
CAITLIN: Patrick.
CHANTELLE: Patrick. Lindzi's boyfriend.
LISA: Ex-boyfriend.
ANNAMARIE: Didn't he dump her?
CAITLIN: She said she dumped him.
ANNAMARIE: Whatever.
CAITLIN: Anyway, they're back together now.
ANNAMARIE: Back together?
CAITLIN: So it seems.
ANNAMARIE: He must be feeling sorry for her.
CHANTELLE: He won't want to be her boyfriend if she ends
up having to wear an eye-patch.
ANNAMARIE: Or one of those creepy glass eyes, like my
grandma.
LISA: I think I know who did that YouTube thing, you know.
CHANTELLE: Tell uswho was it?
(GROUP E; Maria and Pearl:)
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MARIA: I'm not sure I still want to do this play.
PEARL: You are jokin'. You'd better be telling me now that
you are jokin'. I'm serious here.
MARIA: I'm sure Miss can get somebody else to do my part.
PEARL: Get somebody else to do your partin two weeks? I
don't think so. Anyway, you said you was lovin' it and Miss
thinks you're brilliant at it. What, because some lame-brain
snuck in and took a picture of you kissing Lindzi? When we
do this play there's going to be hundreds of people lookin' at
you.
MARIA: And that's supposed to make me feel better?
PEARL: And you've got Natasha nowthe two of you are
brilliant together.
MARIA: Do you really think so?
PEARL: Everybody thinks so.
MARIA: Well, somebody must think I'm a joke or they
wouldn't have done that YouTube thing.
PEARL: Do you think you're a joke?
MARIA: Well...no.
PEARL: And what about Miss? Think about her. Hasn't she
got enough to worry about without you throwing a strop?
MARIA: I'm not throwing a strop.
PEARL: Look, don't screw this up just because of some idiot
"hurting your feelings." This is the best thing I've ever been
part ofwhere I come from, remembering the words to
Beyonce in a karaoke pub is about as close to achieving
anything artistic as you'll ever get. And look at meI can do
Shakespearehow cool is that?

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SCENE 3
(Communal area. Miss Carter talks to Natasha:)
MISS C: You're sure about this, Natasha?
NATASHA: Course I amit's what I want to do. It's what
I've always wanted to do and there's no way I'm letting my
idiot brother or the rest of my messed-up family screw this up
for me.
MISS C: It's not certain that Danny actually did anything
wrong. It's just what the others are saying and the fact that
he's disappeared.
NATASHA: I wouldn't put it past him, Miss. He's always had
that mad streak in him. He's been in trouble since he was
eight. All my family's been in trouble of one sort or another,
the cops send us birthday cards, they know us so well. You've
heard of that"the usual suspects"that's us. That's my big
fat dysfunctional family. I'm telling you, Miss, they're all a
bunch of psychos. I would be just the same as them if it wasn't
for this school. This school, and you, Miss, you've saved my
life.
MISS C: I wouldn't say that, Natasha.
NATASHA: I would. Doing this play and doing Romeo the
best I canit's all that matters to me, Miss.
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SCENE 4
(Rehearsal area. Pearl and Maria, in costume, rehearse together
with props and having learnt their lines.)
JULIET: Oh, here comes my Nurse,

And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Now, Nurse, what news? What hast thou there? The cords
That Romeo bid thee fetch?
NURSE: Ay, ay, the cords.
JULIET: Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
NURSE: Ah, welladay! He's dead, he's dead, he's dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone!
Alack the day! He's gone, he's killed, he's dead!
JULIET: Can heaven be so envious?
NURSE: Romeo can,
Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo!
Whoever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET: What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
This torture should be roared in dismal hell.
NURSE: I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes
God save the mark! here on his manly breast.
A piteous corpse, a bloody piteous corpse.
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
All in gore blood. I swoond at the sight.
JULIET: O, break, my heart, poor bankrupt, break at once!
To prison, eyes, never look on liberty.
NURSE: O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
O courteous Tybalt! Honest gentleman!
That ever I should live to see thee dead.
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JULIET: What storm is this that blows so contrary?
Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead?
My dearest cousin and my dearer lord?
Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!

For who is living if those two are gone?
NURSE: Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banishd.
Romeo that killed himhe is banishd.
JULIET: O God, did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
NURSE: It did, it did. Alas the day, it did.
JULIET: O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st.
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
NURSE: These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
Shame come to Romeo!
JULIET: Blistered be thy tongue
For such a wish! He was not born to shame.
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit,
For 'tis a throne where honor may be crowned.
ROMEO: Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?
JULIET: Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,
When I, thy three hours' wife, have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
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And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murdered me. I would forget it fain,
But oh, it presses to my memory,

Like damnd guilty deeds to sinners' minds.
"Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishd."
"Romeo is banishd." To speak that word,
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. "Romeo is banishd."
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
In that word's death. No words can that woe sound.
Where is my father and my mother, Nurse?
NURSE: Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corpse.
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
JULIET: Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be
spent
When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguiled,
Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled.
He made you for a highway to my bed,
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowd.
Come, cords. Come, Nurse. I'll to my wedding bed.
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!
NURSE: Hie to your chamber. I'll find Romeo
To comfort you. I know well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.
I'll to him. He is hid at Lawrence' cell.
(Juliet gives the Nurse a ring.)
JULIET: O, find him! Give this ring to my true knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.
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MISS C: Excellent girls, excellent.
(Pearl and Maria aside as Miss talks to Courtney and Natasha:)
PEARL: I don't know if you've heard.
MARIA: Heard what?
PEARL: What the girls are saying about who snuck in
rehearsal and took that video of you and Lindzi.
MARIA: Who are they saying?

PEARL: They're saying it was Lindzi's boyfriend.
MARIA: Lindzi's boyfriend? I didn't know she had a
boyfriend. I never saw any boyfriend at rehearsals or after
rehearsals.
PEARL: Well, he's more of an ex-boyfriend. He did it to get
back at her after she dumped him. Making out she's a lesbo
you know what boys are like if you don't fancy them.
MARIA: What's he called?
PEARL: I can't remember. I don't know him. He lives round
Lindzi's way.
MARIA: I should go and see Lindzi, really.
MISS C: (Calling:) Pearl. We need you back you're in this
next scene remember?
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SCENE 5
(Rehearsal area. Natasha and Courtney are in their positions as
Miss bangs her foot on the floor.)
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Who knocks so hard? Whence come
you? What's your will?
NURSE: (Off:) Let me come in, and you shall know my errand.
I come from Lady Juliet.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: (Opening the door:) Welcome then.
NURSE: O holy Friar, O, tell me, holy Friar,
Where is my lady's lord? Where's Romeo?
FRIAR LAWRENCE: There on the ground, with his own tears
made drunk.
NURSE: Oh, he is even in my mistress' case,
Just in her case. O woeful sympathy,
Piteous predicament! Even so lies she,
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up. Stand, and you be a man.
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand.
ROMEO: (Rising:) Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
Doth she not think me an old murderer,
Now I have stained the childhood of our joy
With blood removed but little from her own?
Where is she? And how doth she? And what says
My concealed lady to our canceled love?
NURSE: Oh, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,
And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,
And "Tybalt" calls, and then on Romeo cries,
And then down falls again.
ROMEO: As if that name,
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
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Did murder her, as that name's cursed hand
Murdered her kinsman. O, tell me, Friar, tell me,
In what vile part of this anatomy
Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack
The hateful mansion.
(He draws his dagger.)
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Hold thy desperate hand.
Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.
Thy tears are womanish. Thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.
What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead
There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybaltthere art thou happy.
The law that threatened death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exilethere art thou happy.
A pack of blessings light upon thy back,

Happiness courts thee in her best array,
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.
Ascend her chamber, hence, and comfort her.
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,
Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went forth in lamentation.
Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady,
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.
Romeo is coming.
NURSE: O Lord, I could have stayed here all the night
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To hear good counsel. Oh, what learning is!
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.
ROMEO: Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
NURSE: Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.
(Gives Romeo Juliet's ring:)
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
ROMEO: How well my comfort is revived by this!
(Pearl off.)
FRIAR LAWRENCE: Sojourn in Mantua. I'll find out your
man,
And he shall signify from time to time
Every good hap to you that chances here.
Give me thy hand. 'Tis late. Farewell, good night.
ROMEO: But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief so brief to part with thee.
Farewell.
MISS C: Splendid work all of you.

(Calls Courtney over:)
Great work on your speech...just one tiny thing...
(Pearl approaches Natasha:)
PEARL: Before I forgetcan I have the ring back?
(Natasha looks at the ring:)
NATASHA: Where did you get the ring?
PEARL: It's Maria'sshe wants to use it in the play. It's sort
of like a good luck charm for her. I'm just a bit worried it'll get
lost, it looks expensive.
(Natasha hands over the ring.)
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SCENE 6
(Communal area.)
(GROUP A:)
DONNA: Yeah, my dad's due out next weekjust in time for
the play. Mind you, he'll still have a whole week in between
to get banged up again.
CHARLOTTE: My dad's been out for nearly a year now.
Even now, it's still like weird having him round the house. I
know what you mean when your dad's like in and out of
prison. It's like having a stranger in the house.
DONNA: It's funnyI've probably got my old man to thank
for getting in this school. If I hadn't come from such a
screwed-up family, I'd probably never have got a place.
CHARLOTTE: Yeah but like with this school you also have to
have really high SAT's scoresthey don't take any thickos.
DONNA: So how come you got a place?
CHARLOTTE: Oh funny. I'll match my SAT scores against
yours any day.
DONNA: Don't have a fit. I was only kidding. Anyway, I've

probably got a longer list of offences than you, so that makes
us even.
(GROUP B:)
PEARL: I can't believe it, two weeks to go and then we're on.
Only two more weeks to end of term. I honestly never
thought we'd get this far. And remember, two weeks ago you
were thinking of packing it in.
MARIA: Well, two weeks is a long time.
PEARL: Where's that ring, the one you're using in the play?
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MARIA: I keep it on this chain round my neckjust to be
safe.
PEARL: You can't be too carefulespecially at this school.
You say it's your grandma's?
MARIA: Pearl, can you keep a secret?
PEARL: Sure, course I can.
MARIA: It's not my grandma's ring.
PEARL: That's your big secret?
MARIA: My boyfriend gave it to me.
PEARL: You've got a boyfriend?
MARIA: You sure I can trust you? I've been dying to tell
somebody.
PEARL: I won't tell anybody if you don't want me to but
really, it's not such a big deal.
MARIA: It is a big deal. He's staying at my house.

PEARL: What, you've moved your boyfriend in? Is that such
a good idea...you want to be careful, you know...
MARIA: He has to. He's on the run. It's Danny, Natasha's
brother.
PEARL: Blade? He's staying at your house??
MARIA: The cops are looking for himhe has to.
PEARL: But he stabbed somebodydidn't he?
MARIA: No, he didn't. But all the evidence, what all the other
kids are saying, he doesn't stand a chance with the cops. He
already has a recordthey'll never believe him.
PEARL: But you believe him.
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MARIA: Of course I believe himI love him.
(GROUP C:)
JANE: Oh my god, Millie, are you crazy?
(Millie offers her joint.)
No way.
MILLIE: It's okay. It's only a joint.
JANE: Only a joint? You know what'll happen if you get
caught?
MILLIE: Nobody can see us here. No teachers ever come
round here. And anyway, you're not going to tell on me, are
you?
JANE: You're taking a big risk, Millie. This school, well you
know what this school is, it's like our last chance. We've all
been thrown out of other schools. They don't give you any
second chances at this school. It's like one spot of trouble and
you're out. They throw you out if you don't hand your
homework in. Anyway, they're going to smell it on you.
MILLIE: It's okay. I've got mints.
JANE: They'll smell it on your clothes.
MILLIE: We've got Gym next, it'll be fine. Chill out.
JANE: Have you done this before?
MILLIE: What? Smoked the occasional joint? Yeah, sure, why
not. I'm not a crack addict you know.
JANE: I didn't say you were. It's just that it's zero tolerance at
this school. We get expelled from here and there's nowhere
else.
MILLIE: Yeah, and don't they make sure we know it. I'm a bit
sick of being grateful to this school. There are other schools,
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you know, where they're maybe not such tight-asses about
everything you do, where they have boys, for instance, and
they're not constantly reminding you of how lucky you are not
to be in a Young Offenders Unit. My sister was in a Young
Offenders Unit and she got an education so it can't be that bad.
JANE: Tell you the truth, Millie, I'm glad there's no boys in
this school. It was boys got me into trouble.
MILLIE: What, you've been pregnant?
JANE: No, trouble on the streets, gangs, dealing, shoplifting,
stealing credit cards, doing cash machines.
MILLIE: Kid's stuff.
JANE: Kid's stuff? Okay, Millie, cool kid with a joint, how
come you ended up at this school? Rob a bank?
MILLIE: You don't want to know.

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SCENE 7
(Natasha, Maria, Pearl, Caitlin, Chantelle. Natasha and Maria
in an embrace:)
JULIET: O, now be gone. More light and light it grows.
ROMEO: More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!
(Pearl enters.)
NURSE: Madam.
JULIET: Nurse?
NURSE: Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
The day is broke. Be wary, look about.
JULIET: Then, window, let day in and let life out.
ROMEO: Farewell, farewell. One kiss, and I'll descend.
JULIET: Art thou gone so, love, lord? Ay, husband, friend,
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
For in a minute there are many days.
Oh, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo.
ROMEO: Farewell! I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
JULIET: Oh, think'st thou we shall ever meet again?
ROMEO: I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
JULIET: O God, I have an ill-divining soul.
Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
ROMEO: And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.

Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!
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(Natasha exits, Caitlin enters.)
LADY CAPULET: (From within:) Ho, daughter, are you up?
(Entering:) Why, how now, Juliet?
JULIET: Madam, I am not well.
LADY CAPULET: Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child.
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy
That thou expect'st not, nor I looked not for.
JULIET: Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
LADY CAPULET: Marry, my child, early next Thursday
morn,
The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
JULIET: Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
LADY CAPULET: Here comes your father. Tell him so
yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.
(Enter Chantelle.)
LORD CAPULET: How now, wife?
Have you delivered to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET: Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you
thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave!
LORD CAPULET: How, will she none? Doth she not give us
thanks?
Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

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So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?
JULIET: Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
Proud can I never be of what I hate,
LORD CAPULET: Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no
prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
(Pushing her:) Out, you green sickness, carrion! Out, you
baggage!
LADY CAPULET: Fie, fie! What, are you mad?
(He pushes Caitlin aside.)
JULIET: Good Father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
LORD CAPULET: Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient
wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me.
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child,
But now I see this one is one too much
And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hussy!
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Trevor Suthers

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CAST OF CHARACTERS

ANNAMARIE, plays THE PRINCE.

MILLIE: Romeo killed him, though, didn't he?

MISS C: Well, you must. It's a wonderful film.

Juliet and Her Romeos

LISA: Shut up, toilet breath.

Juliet and Her Romeos

will want to do it.

can understand; I mean, Shakespeare, it's like so last century.

MICHELLE: You're telling me, Miss.

MISS C: The whole dynamic between these characters, these

GREGORY: How? Turn thy back and run?

ABRAM: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

MISS C: Please, everybody, no cell phones.

MISS C: Okay, that's enough. We won't be having the citizens

MISS C: Not quite, Lisa. Permission to court his daughter.

She's the hopeful lady of my earth.

Juliet and Her Romeos

my last school. And anyway you agreed as well in the end.

ROMEO: I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,

BETHANY: It's all PR.

NURSE: ...Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age.

LADY CAPULET: Well, think of marriage now. Younger than

MARIA: Lisa. I think it's Lisa.

JANET: I heard that Miss is cutting some scenes.

CAITLIN: I still think you'd have been a better Juliet than

That presses them and learns them first to bear,

TIFFANY: Yeah, I wondered why Miss chose you to do it.

MARIA: Oh yeah, I love science.

MARIA: I didn't really go to school at all before I came here. I

yeah, I know that one, no it's bitchin'How'd you get it, I

TYBALT: This, by his voice, should be a Montague. (To his

You'll make a mutiny among my guests.

JULIET: What is yond gentleman?

LINDZI: What responsibility?

MISS C: Her vestal livery...

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

ROMEO: Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

LINDZI: Can Romeo and Juliet get married without their

COURTNEY: Then why are you bothered whether he's seeing

him with Maria.

'Where is your mother?'"

NURSE: Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence's cell.

CHARLOTTE: Alright if I do my line nowafter all, I've only

CHARLOTTE: Hey, do you mind? Miss says there are no bit

GEMMA: Help me into some house, Benvolio,

That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul

LINDZI: I don't believe you.

This is a perusal copy only.

PETRUCHIO: Away, Tybalt.

This but begins the woe others must end.

THE PRINCE: Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

I will be deaf to pleading and excuses.

I want to talk to you about something that has been done to

Juliet and Her Romeos

This is a perusal copy only.

Shakespearehow cool is that?

JULIET: Oh, here comes my Nurse,

Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!

But oh, it presses to my memory,

MARIA: Who are they saying?

A pack of blessings light upon thy back,

MISS C: Splendid work all of you.