HEARTWARMING footage shows two London stage stars performing Shakespeare from their windows as they entertain neighbours during the lockdown.
Actors Ruth Gibson and Ché Walker were filmed playing star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet from the bard’s famous tragedy on Saturday.
The show, which took place in Hampstead Heath, London, was sound-tracked by NHS doctor Adolfo Bernstein who accompanied the performance on flute.
The touching video, which has been seen by over 5,000 people, shows Ruth and Ché reciting the famous balcony scene via their windows with script in hand.
Ruth begins with the famous lines: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” from Act Two, Scene Two of the play.
In this case her Romeo, played by Ché the playwright behind musical Been So Long, is across the street, and he shouts his lines back from his own window.
As the scene finishes, the audience standing two metres apart can be heard providing a rapturous round of applause with some screaming with delight.
Ruth uploaded the video to Twitter on Sunday captioned with: “This is how we do lockdown in NW3.
“Entertaining the neighbours (all audience members must be 2m apart).”
The clip has delighted social media users.
@MissMikaSimmons wrote under Ruth’s post: “Genius! And we can play all the parts we’ve never got to play!”
@crinners1 added: “That has just made me tear up. Lovely.”
And @CwynKate commented: “Fantastic neighbours providing respite and joy as well as shopping for the vulnerable ‘shielding’ or isolating (and cooking dinner for NHS workers) – what a wonderful community.”
Speaking today, Ruth who has previously voiced Little My in the English version of The Moomins on the Riviera said: “We only performed the balcony scene for the street.
“There are lots of NHS workers and people self isolating. IT was about six or seven minutes altogether.
“Ché came up with the idea as we are all out of work at the moment.
“I’m supposed to be rehearsing for a play at the moment. His window was opposite mine and suggested we did the balcony scene to entertain the neighbours.
“We did a quick practice on the phone.
“It’s a bit like Hot Fuzz really as we were playing characters well below playing our age.
“It really helped one NHS worker in our street who had been working for a solid month without a break, as she could take her mind off the issue and it helped the community spirit as there were a lot of people stuck in their flats.”
