Robin Hood

Freedom to choose, agency and resilience, tolerance and compassion are things we often take for granted in real life. Fiction will often take us to places of darkness that illuminate the play of light and shadow of our own existence.

In the Verona of Romeo and Juliet, we are in a place of binaries – day and night, light and dark, sun, moon, nightingales and larks. There is constant scrutiny, social constraint and an expectation of absolute conformity. Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris and Benvolio are all part of the tragedy that unfolds. In this world, every older person Romeo and Juliet encounter lets them down. It is not a set of unfortunate events that leads to their deaths, but a world they are trapped within that constantly prescribes their behaviours and limits their choices. Taking their lives is, for them, the only freedom they are accorded in a world devoid of much that we all take for granted.

Kate Nelson

GALLERY