Romeo & Juliette at the castle

A friend invited me to a picnic and open air showing of Romeo & Juliette at Arundel Castle on a Saturday evening.

I grabbed my picnic basket out of storage (given the weather we’ve had this year, it’s been stowed away and collecting dust) and popped a bottle of champagne that I’d been given in the fridge to chill.

As per my usual sort of luck, I was called into work off of standby on the Saturday morning, having to leave the champagne and the picnic basket and quickly jog up to the station last minute to get there in time.

S had to pick me up straight from work, and we made a hasty stop at Tesco to grab some food and prosecco to put in her little picnic basket before heading to Arundel.

We parked by the castle entrance only to be told that we actually (much to S’s dismay) had to walk through town and up the steep hill to a different entrance.

After getting up the hill, we strolled down a gravel path and sat down on the grass in the picnic area to eat, drink and catch up as we hadn’t seen each other since she had left the company that we had both worked for.

After a while, we finished up and made our way through a little courtyard with a fountain, surrounded by trellises of ivy, to the open area where a small stage and seating was set up against the backdrop of the cathedral.

Surrounding us on all sides was lush foliage and palm fronds, not unlike a Victorian botanical garden, and the bubbling of the fountain could be heard in symphony with the din of the crowd filling the seats.

Although I studied Shakespeare for some years at school and college, I had never actually seen any renditions on stage.

Given that I am quite short and the seating was not tiered, it was quite often difficult for me to get a good view of the stage, particularly with the man in front who seemed to instinctively move to obscure my vision every time I got a good vantage point!

Nevertheless, the weather held out and it was a lovely evening and good performance to watch, surrounded by a lovely view both during the day and as the sun went down.