Now, the balcony scene is an absolute tour de force. It has some of the most remarkable writing I've ever read in any play.

It's genuinely charged with such incredible imagery and language that I think it's a truly staggering achievement and very well worthy of its fame.

So when Romeo arrives, of course, Juliet is out in the balcony and we begin to get her very, very

famous monologue, the sort of words that even the most drunken, uncultured boozer in your tavern

knows, Romeo, whereforeout thou Romeo, as they drunkenly will mock. Or at least they did in my local

pub. Maybe that's, maybe that's just a me thing. I don't know. But yes, Romeo, Romeo, whereforeout thou, Romeo?

You can see Juliet in this moment all of a sudden, who was once before entirely the instrument of

her own family, trying to deconstruct this feud, trying to reason herself into why can't she love this man? What is

really stopping her? And you see Juliet begin to deconstruct her family name and Romeo's

name and what it really means and why it should stop the two of them from being together.

When she says, thou art thyself, though not a Montague, what's Montague?

Is it not hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face?

Oh, be some other name belonging to a man.

What is in the name?

That which we call a rose, by any other word, would smell as sweet. And so, of course, the thing itself is beautiful, regardless of its name.

A rose still smells wonderful and looks beautiful, even if it were not called a rose.

And this, of course, comes back to the importance of language and wordplay, because the

name Capulet is, of course, not merely a family name, and especially not that of a noble family.

It is history. It is legacy. It is responsibility. It's duty. It's obligation. It is nobility and pride, and many, many other things besides.

And Juliet has to weigh up whether she looks at all of those things,

and whether or not they hold up and should be chosen over love. I think it's also important to point out that

during the balcony scene, for a girl who is just about to become 14, Juliet shows a remarkable

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