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Love, rivalry and a toilet brush: the bilingual comedy tearing through Romeo and Juliet

Richard Beck Richard Beck
13 Jul 2025

We asked Eduardo Zucchi, a London-based Mexican actor and theatre-maker who recently graduated from LAMDA’s MA in Classical Acting, to tell us about the challenge and development of re-visioning Romeo and Juliet with an international cast.

The shared experience of performing the play’s beauty, violence and longing brings them together

Is Romeo and Juliet truly the ultimate romantic tragedy, or does it end on a hopeful note?

Romeo and Juliet: Out of Pocket is a high-energy, two-hander adaptation that tears through Shakespeare’s most famous play in 60 minutes of theatrical chaos, academic rivalry and accidental romance.

The idea began when Argentinian playwright Emiliano Dionisi wondered: what if two Shakespearean scholars – each utterly convinced of their interpretation of the ending – tried to settle the matter not through words but through action, by performing the play themselves? That offhand thought spiralled into something more: a fast-paced, comedic battle of wits, egos and hearts, where the lines between performers and characters blur in the most unexpected ways.

At the heart of Out of Pocket are two academics – she’s British: precise, logical and scholarly. He’s Mexican: poetic, passionate and driven by heart. Against their will, they are tasked with presenting a joint lecture on Shakespeare. Their disagreement over the play’s ending leads them to act it out themselves. With nothing but a cleaning trolley in sight, they use whatever is at hand. A chalkboard becomes a church, a pointer becomes a blade, a toilet brush becomes a sceptre – and much more. This adds to the fun, as the audience is always in on the joke, even as they’re swept up in the emotion.

When I began thinking about staging the production in London, I asked myself: how could I make this brilliant adaptation I saw in Mexico City resonate with London audiences? For me, the power of theatre lies in its ability to create empathy, allowing anyone, regardless of background, to connect with a story. Rather than translating both professors into the same cultural identity, I chose to retain the Spanish verse and introduce some of my own, creating a Mexican professor whose emotional intensity is so great that at times only his mother tongue can express it.

It is often said that the language we are born into is the truest expression of our deepest feelings. This linguistic shift doesn’t create division – it adds richness. The goal is for audiences to feel the universal power of love and longing, whether those feelings are expressed in English or Spanish. This choice allowed me to offer my own perspective on Shakespeare – a world I once thought I’d never belong to – and to bring new depth, musicality and openness to how his work can sound, look and feel.

The show draws on a rich theatrical tradition of meta-performance, clowning and farce, while staying rooted in genuine affection for Shakespeare’s text. The actors switch roles at lightning speed, with rough-edged character changes. As they bicker, sabotage each other and cut increasingly ridiculous corners to keep up with the pace, something curious happens: the rivalry softens. The shared experience of performing the play’s beauty, violence and longing brings them together. Without even realising it, they begin to live out their own version of the play's central theme: the strange, often irrational pull of love.

At its core, the piece explores not just the absurdities of performance, but the joys and challenges of connection. The clash of cultures – British formality versus the passion of the Mexican telenovela – sparks both conflict and comedy. But ultimately, the show suggests that across language, distance and misunderstanding, love and laughter can still bring people together.

For director Alonso Íñiguez, this playful approach to performance is key: “Shakespeare’s work is timeless not because we preserve it in amber,” he says, “but because we keep finding new ways to bring it to life, to make it mean something now.” Íñiguez, known for inventive adaptations that fuse classical texts with contemporary sensibilities, has created a piece that is as much a love letter to theatre itself as to Shakespeare.

The team behind Out of Pocket reflects the show’s global spirit. The cast includes performers from Mexico and the UK – Eduardo Zucchi and Felicity Ison – each bringing their own cultural background, LAMDA training and humour to the mix. The design, by Aldo Vázquez Yela, leans into a DIY classroom aesthetic – simple visual cues create a world that is playful, immediate and accessible.

In an era where relationships are increasingly shaped by immediacy, technology and distance, Out of Pocket asks: can romantic love still cut through the noise? Why do we continue to return to Romeo and Juliet, centuries later? The answer may lie in the joyful absurdity of human connection – something Shakespeare captured in all its messiness, and which this adaptation reframes with comedy, energy and heart.

Audiences today are hungry for theatre that is both intelligent and accessible – work that reimagines classics without losing emotional depth. While many Shakespeare productions lean towards gritty reinterpretations or radical twists, Out of Pocket offers something distinct: a bilingual play within a play that is designed to make people laugh, to surprise them and – if they’re open to it – to move them. It’s for Shakespeare lovers, Shakespeare sceptics, and everyone in between.

Richard Beck

Richard Beck

A graduate in theology and education, Richard acted and contributed to dance, drama and music productions throughout his teaching career. He joined Broadway Baby in 2014 and is now our Editor-in-Chief. He usually disappears to warmer climes for the winter to pursue his passion for travel.

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