Previews

29.08.07 - 01.09.07 | Pangbourne College | Pangbourne | RG8 8LA | 7.45pm | £14 (£9 concessions) | Box office: 0118 9844166

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This year the Riverside Players present Romeo & Juliet, which will be performed in the grounds of Pangbourne College from Wednesday 29 August to Saturday 1 September inclusive.

But like every year, the Players set themselves a special challenge. They give themselves just two weeks to set up the full performance.

That's not just learning the lines - it's creating the set, the costumes and the lighting.

One year the set was still being painted as the audience were taking their seats!

The cast includes Catherine Baxter as Juliet – interestingly, she first appeared on stage for the Riverside Players aged just three months in a 1986 production of Nicholas Nickleby.

Catherine, who has just graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama, is delighted to have been cast as Juliet.

She said: "The possibility of playing Juliet had never really occurred to me, but now it's a reality I'm very excited". 

And she's clearly been thinking hard about the role: "When Juliet meets Romeo she's under no illusions – she knows she's being heavily chatted up. She doesn't necessarily expect to get in so deep at that stage, but by the end of that first meeting she knows that this is 'it'".

Directed by Shakespeare specialist Sue Baxter, (and Catherine's mother) this production will be a refreshing interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most well known and copied works.

All performances start at 7.45pm and if wet, the show will be performed in the College theatre.