The dancer/actor/standup comic Ben Duke and his company Lost Dog are performing their Olivier-nominated Juliet and Romeo at The Tolmen Centre in Falmouth on October 27.

Ben said: “I’ve allowed myself to imagine a alternate version to Shakespeare’s original: in this work Juliet and Romeo have been together about 25 years and they are in something of a marital crisis.

“They love each other but sometimes they wish the other one were dead…the bloom of teenage romance has definitely faded but it still haunts them.

“Romeo is in the middle of a mid-life crisis; he is trying to let go of the passionate teenager he was and become a Man. But he doesn’t have any clear idea what that Man should look like so he is in limbo.

“Juliet is very attached to the extraordinary teenager she was and is finding the ordinariness of her current life a struggle.

“I love the fact that people come along to see the show because it’s happening in their theatre or their village hall and that means they arrive with no expectations even though there are the names of two very famous literary characters in the title of the piece.

“I love the intimacy of smaller venues as well – there’s nowhere to hide!”

Solène Weinachter plays Juliet in this clever and funny production.