An innovative stage version of Romeo and Juliet is using rap music to give audiences a fresh take on Shakespeare’s classic story and its characters.

Premiering at Belgrade Theatre Coventry on 21 February, the production is directed by Belgrade Theatre creative director Corey Campbell along with Coventry-based music and theatre company That’s a Rap.

“Using rap has brought an ability for new audiences to have a greater level of understanding of Shakespeare in laymen’s terms,” says That’s a Rap co-founder Keiren Hamilton-Amos.

“What we’ve been able to do is extend Shakespeare’s work and allow it to be seen by more audiences, wider audiences and younger audiences. We’ve done that through the art of rap and through music poetry.”

The show, which brings together a professional cast, a community choir and young practitioners from the Belgrade Ensemble, has remained true to the original while using music to explore some of its ideas and characters more widely.

“It stays Romeo and Juliet,” explains Keiren. “The magic and the craftsmanship of Shakespeare is something that we still love as actors and artists so it’s just about how can we re-imagine it rather than recreate it and do our own story or our own version?

“A lot of what we’ve been saying through this process is that it’s already there, Shakespeare is powerful but there were things that we’d like to know more about at certain moments. So what is this character feeling, what is going on in the background of this relationship that isn’t written in the scenes?”

Keiren and fellow co-founder Corey Weekes formed That’s a Rap after acting together in the Birmingham Rep stage show GrimeBoy and the BBC and Netflix television drama Champion.

They have been collaborating with Corey Campbell for around two years on the Romeo and Juliet project, initially working together with young people in Coventry Extended Learning Centre to create music and lyrics and then developing the final production.

“It has been a long process creatively,” says Corey Weekes. “We were working with the young people on a weekly basis, just getting their perspectives on the themes of the work and how those themes present in today’s world.

“We did a lot of groundwork in understanding the story we want to tell, the story that needs to be told for the communities that we are serving and how we can mesh our contemporary vision with the classical text.”

In doing so they hope to break new ground.

“We haven’t always necessarily kept Shakespeare’s rhythm,” Corey Weekes explains. “It’s OK for us to develop our own rhythms - Shakespeare was innovative enough to do that and we feel we can be innovative enough to do that as well.

“This Romeo and Juliet could be the gateway to opening and broadening horizons when it comes to the possibilities of what theatre can be. Whether you are a theatregoer and a Shakespeare purist, or someone who has never seen Shakespeare in your life, maybe did a bit at school and didn’t understand it, you can come along and have your language spoken to you as well as the language of the late 1500s and early 1600s.”

The production features actors Mia Khan as Juliet and Kyle Ndukuba as Romeo. Mia’s previous productions include The Motive and the Cue in the West End and Steeltown Murders on BBC One while this is Kyle’s professional stage debut.

“As soon as you think of lovers in the archetypal way you go straight to Romeo and Juliet,” says Mia. “But I think through it being so famous, a lot of the messages have been lost.

“Both Romeo and Juliet are often seen as being young, dumb, not really in love and whisked in this whirlwind. But coming in with fresh eyes and adding the new elements means we see, for example, that Juliet is an incredibly smart and headstrong young girl and that Romeo has this absolute love and drive. I think it just proves that young love is real and those feelings are real love.”

In the rehearsal process, Mia has come to see sides to Juliet’s character she hadn’t realised were there.

“When I was growing up I thought Juliet was just a stupid young girl but now I’m seeing so much more about her. I wish I was more like her, she’s incredibly smart and incredibly driven, she can outwit anyone in the room, she has so much to say.

“I really understand her now, she has this beautiful openness and joy and youth while still having a really great head on her shoulders. Being able to play Juliet is just massive. For women actors, Juliet is one of the roles that you really hope you get to perform.”

And Kyle is also embracing the challenge of a lead role so early in his stage career.

“Romeo is one of the roles that everyone would love to play,” he says. “It’s been great. I’ve just come out of drama school and it’s super-exciting to be playing Romeo as my first role.”

Kyle believes the music is key to attracting younger audiences to see the show.

“Rap is one of the most popular genres of music especially for people in certain classes and areas and regions,” he says. “Putting rap in there brings in a whole new audience, an audience who probably don’t know Romeo and Juliet at all if they haven’t done it in school. But the story is very present for lots of young people who need to see something like this.

“The story is very relevant today of two opposing families, two groups, who have a deep hatred for each other for no real reason, no reason that is known to any of the young kids in the family. That happens everywhere.”

But there are also challenges to the role, he says. “There’s a lot of rap and it takes a lot of stamina. But it’s worth it as you get to see between moments with a whole rap and a whole song that you would never see. Everyone will find something in the play that you are going to resonate to, something in your own lives.”

Romeo and Juliet plays Belgrade Theatre Coventry on 21 February to 8 March, see belgrade.co.uk for more information and tickets.

By Diane Parkes