Act Three

One Week Later

Pale, cold light fills the institute and inside the inmates appear to be in a state of increased sedation. There is little interaction between them and the atmosphere is heavy. When familiar music plays they re-live moments from the past – happier times now lost forever - but their moments are slow, unsteady and melancholic.

Romeo is led through the space by the Nurse and the Orderly, wearing a straightjacket and looking traumatised. He is walked through his group of friends, before being locked away out of sight of the others.  

Balthasar is still grieving Mercutio’s death as he undertakes a mournful solo. He collapses on the floor, exhausted and the lights go out. The distant sound of cheers and applause heralds the return of the Montagues, who have been summoned to collect Romeo.

Meanwhile, Juliet is alone in a separate room where she unveils a knife that she has stashed under the pillow on her bed. As she considers taking her own life, she interrupted by a visit from the Psychiatric Doctor. She quickly re-hides the knife, before being prescribed some more medication which she refuses to take. 

Alone in their rooms, Romeo and Juliet yearn for each other. A window is cast into their minds as three duets take place on stage, reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet’s duet earlier in the show.

Juliet lurches from the bed, convinced she can hear a noise in the corridor outside. Juliet is frantic when she sees Tybalt in his guard uniform, who appears to enter the cell. Romeo pleads with Juliet to come to her senses as he cannot see any sign of anyone else in the room.  As Juliet’s hallucination grows more menacing, she exits the cell and runs away, believing Tybalt to be in close pursuit.

Romeo follows after her, through the open cell door. He pleads for help from the rest of the inmates who follow Romeo in his search for Juliet. In her confused state Juliet is uncertain whether her friends have come to help her or attack her. Passing back through her room, with the others hot on her heels, she grabs her knife. Her visions of Tybalt grow increasingly more life-like and she stabs at him. As her confusion escalates, she is surrounded by her fellow inmates. Juliet once again uses her knife, this time mortally wounding Romeo thinking that he is Tybalt. 

Seeing the blood on her hands brings Juliet out of her stupor. She gets Romeo to his feet and takes him to the infirmary, where they are both horrified to see the sight of Mercutio’s lifeless body lying on a mortuary slab. Juliet tries furtively to save Romeo, but to no avail. Seeing her anguish, Romeo makes it clear to Juliet, just before he dies, that he loves her and forgives her. 

Overcome with grief Juliet grabs at his lifeless body, desperate for him to respond. Realising that she has killed the love of her life, Juliet takes the same knife that killed Romeo and stabs herself in the stomach, dying shortly after.

In the half-light, the ghostly figures of other inmates appear. Mercutio arises from the mortuary slab and with his fellow inmates he helps them lift the limp bodies of Romeo and Juliet together on to the same slab. Wrapped in one another’s arms, in the same pose we saw them in at the start of the show, Romeo and Juliet, are left alone as the rest of the inmates disappear into the darkness.