Romeo and Juliet

“Even today, I am deeply concerned with the question of the purity of love,” says director Inese Mičule. Through the lens of Italy’s contemporary “golden youth” and the Sicilian Mafia, and through the crowds of tourists in the little courtyard by Juliet’s house in Verona, the director and her team will search for a clear voice of love, untouched by crowds and everyday life. “This myth still raises the question of how the young people from two feuding families were so strong in their love that they could stand up to the established order of the world,” says the director.

Shakespeareans and anti-Shakespeareans tirelessly compile volumes of evidence: who really wrote William Shakespeare’s immortal works? But regardless of authorship, the plays live lives of their own and invite ever-new interpretations. Valmieras teātris is convinced that every generation needs its own Juliet and Romeo. For young people today, West Side Story, Vija Artmane and Eduards Pāvuls cheek to cheek in a romantic picture with lace-trimmed edges, and even the Baz Luhrmann film fans Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, “coated in the breadcrumbs of pop culture” (film critic Dita Rietuma), are all merely cultural references from history.

The production was created with the support of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation in Valmieras teātris’ 2024/2025 season. With the Foundation’s support, the following productions reached audiences in the 2026/2027 season: Trešās impērijas bailes un posts (director Indra Roga). In the 2025/2026 season: Ļaunais gars (director Inese Mičule), Mēdeja (director Reinis Suhanovs), Tu būsi mana! (director Jānis Znotiņš), and Skroderdienas Silmačos (director Elmārs Seņkovs). In the 2024/2025 season: Romeo un Džuljeta (director Inese Mičule), Zilā (director Māra Ķimele), Sprīdītis (director Reinis Suhanovs), Četri balti krekli (director Jānis Znotiņš), and Burvju kalns (director Toms Treinis).

The friendship between the theatre and the Foundation began in the 2023/2024 season, the theatre’s centenary, when four works of classic Latvian drama were staged: Valmieras puikas (director Jānis Znotiņš), Atraitnes dēls (director Viesturs Roziņš), and the works that received special acclaim from audiences and critics, Jāzeps un viņa brāļi (director Inese Mičule) and Pazudušais dēls (director Reinis Suhanovs).

Photo: Mārtiņš Vilkārsis