Love, lost memory and ageing explored in ‘Remember Romeo’ by imitating the dog

Opening at The Dukes, Lancaster on Wed 3 March 2027, imitating the dog, one of the UK’s most original and innovative theatre companies, presents Remember Romeo. This brave new production intertwines Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy with an original story of love, lost memory and the impact of ageing.

Announcing an initial run of five UK venues for the tour, including Liverpool, Coventry, Huddersfield and Derby, with more to be added, the company also confirms April dates in Switzerland.

At a time when conversations around age-related health and wellbeing, not least the devastating consequences of dementia, have never felt more urgent, Remember Romeo elects to place older lives and experiences centre stage. Following the acclaimed national and international tour of the company’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi novel War Of The Worlds,Remember Romeo continues imitating the dog’s exploration of the relationship between theatre and film, combining technical innovation with emotionally resonant storytelling. Intimate in scale yet expansive in imagination, it is a production that speaks across generations about love, loss, regret and the enduring power of memory.

Created by imitating the dog’s co-artistic directors Andrew Quick, Simon Wainwright and Pete Brooks, the production centres on a man and a woman in their seventies who meet again after more than thirty years apart. Their reunion takes place in a flat in a northern town, where old memories, unresolved feelings and long-buried questions begin to resurface.

The pair share a secret history. In 1965, as young actors, they played Romeo and Juliet in a TV adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. During the production they fell in love.  The relationship never lasted but neither did it entirely disappear. As they talk in the present the past begins to return. Fragments of the lost television drama appear around them and the walls of the flat become alive with memories.  Suddenly they are reunited, not only with each other, but the younger versions of themselves who first fell in love all those years ago.

Using live performance, projection and film, Remember Romeo weaves together two parallel stories. One strand follows the narrative of a newly rediscovered period television adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, which is screened as a piece of classic British noir. The newly created, one hour film takes inspiration from the textures and visual language of mid-century television as well as the blooming youth culture of the late 50s and early 60s. Projected onto a compact box set where the walls become shifting canvases of memory, the film reimagines Romeo and Juliet as a story of dance halls, leather jackets, rebellion and desire.

The other story enters the world of two characters some fifty years later. What will open as an awkward reunion is set to become a deeply moving encounter, each character dealing with the fragility of memory itself.  Performed by two older actors, Remember Romeo places aging at the centre of an epic love story. As Shakespeare’s young lovers move towards their tragic fate, the couple in the present are forced to reckon with their own past and the choices that shaped the lives they have lived apart.

Andrew Quick, Co-Artistic Director of imitating the dog said:

“What excites us about Remember Romeo is that it brings together two love stories separated by more than half a century. One is a version of Shakespeare’s great tragedy; the other is the story of two people looking back on a relationship that never quite found its ending.

“As memories begin to fade, remembering becomes an act of reconstruction. This new show asks what remains of us when the past starts to slip away, and whether it is possible to reclaim something that seemed lost forever. At its heart, Remember Romeo is a story about love, memory and the traces we leave behind in one another.”

Remember Romeo premieres in March 2027 before touring across England and Switzerland as follows:

imitating the dog has been making ground-breaking work for theatres and other spaces for almost three decades. The company’s work, which fuses live performance with digital technology, has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people at venues, outdoor festivals and events across the world. Previous productions include the award-winning Dracula: The Untold Story, Hotel Methuselah, A Farewell to Arms, Heart of Darkness, Night of the Living Dead™ – Remix, Frankenstein, All Blood Runs Red and War of the Worlds. In 2022 the company staged Cinema Inferno, a ground-breaking new show for the Parisian haute couture house Maison Margiela, based on an original concept by creative director John Galliano, for Maison Margiela’s Artisanal 2022 collection, presented on the official Paris Haute Couture Calendar.

Remember Romeo’s creative team features set and costume design by Abby Clarke, lighting design by Andrew Crofts, music and sound design by James Hamilton and casting direction by Ellie Collyer-Bristow.

Remember Romeo plays at Liverpool Playhouse Wed 10 – Sat 13 March 2027. Tickets are available here.