A trilogy of short plays each exploring a different theme from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

It’s Shakespeare three ways! Shakespeare’s timeless tale of teenage love and loss reworked and re-imagined through the exciting kaleidoscope lens of Twenty-First Century sensibilities.

Enjoy a fractured retake, a lightening-speed modern retelling or take a deep breath and help the two feuding houses prevent the all too tragic ending.

Presented by the third year actors in USQ’s theatre program and written by lecturer Scott Alderdice, this triptych on Verona will have you laughing, crying and rethinking everything you know about this age old tale. See one, see two or see all three!

Show times:

Fri, Sat & Sun evening
6pm - Once in Verona
7pm - Romeo Must Die!
8pm - Enemies to peace

Matinee times:

Sunday afternoon matinee
2pm – Once in Verona
3pm – Romeo Must Die!
4pm – Enemies to peace

Monday mid morning matinee
10am – Once in Verona
11am – Romeo Must Die!
12.30pm – Enemies to peace

About the three productions

Once in Verona

“The two hour’s traffic of our stage.”? Not this time. Four actors, modern verse and in fifty minutes Romeo and Juliet’s story is remade. All the characters, all the plot points and choices gone wrong, all the bravado, the passion, the lunacy and tears, all the ironies and acts of fate enacted in a fast-paced adaptation of Shakespeare’s teenage play. The streets of Verona are coming to the twenty-first century!

Romeo Must Die! 

Forget everything you think you know about Shakespeare’s tragic teen love story. The fair women of Verona have a different story to tell. In this romping reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic, the Veronese women gather in the crypt where Juliet has been laid to rest to tell their own tales of slavery, swordfights, and secret love, and to plot a new ending for the so-called hero, Romeo.

Enemies to Peace.

For four hundred years they have fought and died with knives and guns, swords and clubs; washed the cobblestones and concrete with generations of blood –  now they gather in the twilight between stage and page to discover the true reason for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. What is it about the creed of warrior and man that would set power and vengeance and murder above all other reward? What is it with the dance macabre of men?

Retracing the scenes of their own story, the people of the Capulet and Montague clans search for the seeds of destruction among their own. 

Adaptations written by Scott Alderdice 

For mature audiences – contains adult themes, simulated violence, blood and suicide.