AN INTERVIEW WITH ROMEO & JULIET - EDDIE USHER & VIOLET RYDER

All about Romeo?

V. Romeo is understandably the most famous lover of all time. Shakespeare has immortalized him and has teenage girls swooning for him all over the world. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find another so quick to fall in love, get hitched and commit suicide in the name of love. His time with Juliet is relatively short in the context of how mighty his feelings are for her but his heart governs him. It's a romantic notion but the reality is like a jacked-up bad trip into a dark adolescence.

E. Romeo's no Casanova or anything, he's not perfect in the slightest, he's impulsive, clumsy, a boy on the verge of becoming a man but fundamentally he's human and makes mistakes and I think thats why he's stood the test of time. .

Are they crazy?

V. A bit mental, yes. But take me back to being thirteen, put me in a context where I can't stand any of my family, where I am the black sheep, the epitome of misunderstood, and my life is mapped out for me - Sling in a boy who spins my hormones into overdrive, is the connecting fit to all my messed up parts... and it's requited! But place him as the enemy, an impossibility, stamp out all hope and leave me without my heart... I think I might be a bit mental too. I love a tragic heroine and you don't get much better than Juliet. She's ballsy, upfront, impatient which will be great fun to play but she's also dark, weird and pretty messed up... Happy days!

E. I don't think they start out as mental, but by the end I don't think their far off it. So much go's on in those 5 days, a mass brawl, a party,1 wedding, a failed wedding and six deaths (if you count Lady Montague), how anyone could stay sane after all that I don't know.

There is a significant lack of sleep in this play - going without sleep makes you crazy...

V. When I was in Cambridge doing a Shakespeare festival I got quite used to sleeping four hours a night and living on a strict diet of baked beans on toast and whiskey and coke... I felt like Withnail and I don't remember much about it.

E. I remember being in Hong Kong on my own waiting for a connecting flight back to England that was due to leave about 56 hours later, the only trouble was I didn't have enough money for a hotel so decided to just walk the streets and see as much of the city as I could, after lots of Red Bull, some random conversations with locals and seeing as many things as possible, I succumbed to the sleep and passed out in a bar somewhere. I lasted about 48 hours in total and by the end my mind was starting to play tricks on me, hence why I'm never sure if all the things I saw were real or hallucinations...

What is your first memory of Romeo & Juliet?

V. I studied Romeo & Juliet at school when I was about fourteen. Baz Luhrmann's version came out around that time and it was just when I was turning from cocky kid into gangly teen. I fell totally in love with DiCaprio and felt venom towards all the other girls (and some of the boys) in my year who felt the same - what a loser.

E. I think my first proper memory of Romeo & Juliet was in school, I remember watching the Franco Zeffirelli adaptation in class and thinking wow I don't understand everything their saying but I sure would love to be up there doing it.