Announcing: Bricks and Paper: A Story in Light
21st October 2026
Back in September, the company had the final R&D session for our upcoming theatrical tour Remember Romeo. And as we move out of this stage of the show’s development and look more purposefully towards the elements all coming together on stage, co-director and co-writer Andrew Quick sat down for a Q&A about what audiences can expect from Remember Romeo and how the show looks at this moment in time.
Q: We’re still in the relatively early stages of Remember Romeo development. Where are things currently at in the process and how are things going?
A: We’re well on the way, really. We have a completed script. We have a film script of our version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, pred back to about forty-five minutes. There’s a working design and a concept for the technology. The main characters are cast. So, all in all, we’re in a very good place. We start making the film in a month and it’s going to be a very fast shoot so we now have to prepare for that.
Q: imitating the dog (ITD) frequently take influence from iconic texts and narratives. How is this interpretation speaking to Shakespeare’s play?
A: We take the original story and even though it is set in the early 1960s we pretty much stick to the original plot line and stay with the verse. What we get is a parallel story. The lovers in the play and their tragedy and the story of failed or lost love by the older protagonists we see on the stage. You see the older actors are the people who were in the film made in the 1960s. And they had an affair when they were making the film and that affair did not work out even though they were very much in love. And now they are in the room again after a fifty-year gap. The woman is losing her memory and she wants to kind of say goodbye and also explain, in her terms, what happened. So it’s two love stories entwining.
Q: What can you say so far about what audiences can expect from the production?
A: It’s going to be a marked contrast with War of the Worlds. It’s a gentler work, it should be moving and exciting but imbued with longing and regret. We have the energy of the film that haunts the stage. Young actors shot in black and white, the fight scenes, young love blooming. Everything you expect from a Romeo and Juliet. Then on the stage, two amazing older performers remembering their roles in the original film, bringing it back to life as it were. And this resuscitation makes something new and magical. It’s a relationship unfolding before us in different circumstances and it’s going to be moving and delightful at the same time. The show will have the visual signatures that one would expect from an ITD show. Beautiful video, a film that fragments and coheres – a bit like how memory operates and a sumptuous soundtrack. There’s dancing and rock and roll. I mean what’s not to like.
Q: imitating the dog have a global reputation for being playful in the theatre space. Can you tease any techniques that you’re currently experimenting with for this production, or is it too early to tell?
A: We’re exploring some techniques that we have used in the past. I’m interested in how the live actors seamlessly voice the Juliet and Romeo characters on the film so it looks like they are speaking the lines in an almost magical fashion. I won’t give away how we do it – but it’s a trick we have used before. I think the sound and visuals will be stunning and again all our work is informed by the shows we have previously made. We are always learning.
Q: What was the starting point for this production?
A: It was the idea of two older actors voicing the whole of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It was a concept that we played around with a few years ago but it didn’t quite work. We needed a frame otherwise it felt too much like an exercise. But I always liked the idea and Simon Wainwright (co-ITD Artistic Director & show creator) convinced me that there was a show here. I found the frame through the idea and experience of memory loss or memory failing. Two people in my family have gone and are still going through these challenges. This experience informs much of what I have written.
Q: You’re coming out of the R&D phase – what’s the next stage of the process?
A: Now we make the show. Playtime is over and all our energy is about creating the best work we can in the time we have. I’m always rewriting and shaping the script but that will stop soon so performers can learn lines. In mid-December we make the film – that’s going to be intense. Then in January we edit the film and start working on the foley and soundscape. Then in February we rehearse with the material. I can’t wait to get into the rehearsal room but there’s a lot do in the next three months!
Q: The show is made in collaboration with both The Dukes and Lancaster Arts. With imitating the dog and several of its team having Lancaster roots, what does it mean to be creating a production made in Lancaster, as it were?
A: I grew up in Lancaster and both venues were hugely important to me and I probably would not be doing this had my parents not taken me to The Nuffield Theatre (the theatre venue in Lancaster Arts) in the 1970s. I saw the Saint Quentin Jail Drama Workshop’s staging of Krapp’s Last Tape and Endgame directed by Beckett himself as a fifteen-year-old. I have never forgotten that production. When I saw that show I immediately said to myself – that’s what I want to do. I was in the Dukes Youth Theatre and watching theatre and film in The Dukes was hugely influential. The Lancaster Literature Festival was also important. And much of this activity also took place at The Dukes. I also worked at Lancaster University which my mother attended in the late 1960s as an undergraduate before she taught at one the city’s schools. Lancaster is in my blood.
Q: Finally, the show opens at The Dukes in just under five months time. What does the time between then and now look like?
A: Too short.
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