New Romeo & Juliet Movie, Starring The Crown's Josh O'Connor, Set for PBS
Before the ongoing pandemic brought public performances to a halt, Josh O'Connor—best known to Town & Country readers as The Crown's Prince Charles—was set to lead a UK National Theatre production of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, opposite Chernobyl's Jessie Buckley. Now, the play has been reconceived as a TV movie, the first original production for the screen to be filmed in the theater's South Bank home.
“Over 17 days of filming, the company was united by a sense of shared exploration. As well as being given intimate access to the thoughts and feelings of characters, we were able to bring to life remarkable, forgotten spaces at the National Theatre," said Simon Godwin, the production's director, per Playbill.
The film will air on PBS on April 23 at 9 p.m. ET, as a part of its Great Performances series. Along with Buckley and O'Connor, it stars Deborah Findlay as the Nurse, Tamsin Greig as Lady Capulet, Fisayo Akinade as Mercutio, Lucian Msamati as the Friar, Shubham Saraf as Benvolio, David Judge as Tybalt, Alex Mugnaioni as Paris, and Ellis Howard as Sampson.
Last year, when the production's pivot to TV was first announced, National Theatre Director and Joint Chief Executive Rufus Norris said in a statement, "I wanted to find a way to use that space to create something exciting and special for audiences, that utilized the exceptional skill and craft of the National Theatre’s teams, freelancers and creative associates, and that could reach as many people as we can." They certainly achieved just that.
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