Arts editor HELEN MUSA talks to Madeline Li about her upcoming leading role as Juliet in Bell Shakespeare’s latest production of Romeo and Juliet.

Juliet. Not quite 14 years old – so young, so impetuous, and yet so intelligent and wise beyond her years.

It’s a dream part for any aspiring female actor and it’s the perfect answer to complaints that Shakespeare didn’t write good enough roles for women. 

So enticing is the 13-year-old Juliet in fact, that she’s been played by famous British actresses well into their 60s.

When I catch up with Madeline Li, who’s taking on the role in Bell Shakespeare’s revival of Peter Evans’s 2023 production, I find that she’s much nearer the fictional Juliet’s age.

A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (where she got to play roles as challenging as Juliet, such as Elsa in the Danish drama, Festen, and Irina in Chekhov’s Three Sisters), to her mind, Juliet’s age is not front and centre.

When I catch up with her, they’re halfway through the second week of rehearsals and have been focusing on matters different from the sociology of Juliet as a young teenager. 

As with Hamlet, aged 30, we know exactly how old Juliet is in the play – “not yet 14.” 

To be sure, people are aware of her age, but the idea of adolescence is a modern one and as Li says: “We don’t have to play into that when we perform the character, even though young people today often read her sympathetically because they’re going through adolescence.”

Besides, it’s obvious to anyone that Juliet is much more mature than Romeo, whose part falls to Ryan Hodson.

Li is not quite a newcomer to Bell Shakespeare, having made her debut with them in their poetry-based show, In a Nutshell, “a crash course in Shakespeare”, she says.

 Well, not quite. She did play Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at NIDA.

When tackling Juliet, she says: “One thing I was aware of is that she changes her mind a lot – sometimes she’s pragmatic and sometimes she’s romantic. It’s a real push and pull.

“The more I discussed it with Peter [Evans], the more I saw that her pragmatism was in service of her romantic side.

“I feel that her idealism comes through as the play moves through the misunderstandings that bring about its tragic end. 

“The extraordinary intelligence she reveals by showing confidence in her feelings for Romeo are a difficult thing to do at any age and are a really beautiful part of her character.

“From the first day of rehearsals, I felt that they were both zealots in their love… to me, to worship another person and show the way you feel is a really admirable thing.”

Li agrees that Juliet is canny enough to seem to play the game as she does when she pretends to give in, agrees to marry Paris, and asks for permission to go to the Friar (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor) for confession.

She has wisdom beyond her years, Li says, but she is unchangeable in her love.

Her view of the play is generally a positive one and she looks upon Lord Capulet’s (Michael Wahr) violent outburst when Juliet refuses to obey him as a momentary aberration that follows the death of his kinsman Tybalt (Tom Matthews).

“It’s the first time he’s ever behaved like this and it gives us a chance to look at how people behave in times of great grief,” she says.

Noting that Juliet’s father doesn’t know about her relationship with Romeo and her reactions to his banishment, she says: “He definitely doesn’t act like a loving parent, but he’s only human.”

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy based on what my Shakespeare lecturer used to call “a bad postal service“ – a letter is not delivered to Romeo in time – but Li does perceive some weaknesses in the young lovers too, as they never consider telling their friends.

Juliet’s only true confidante is her nurse (Merridy Eastman), so when she suggests Juliet should marry Paris, she feels truly alone.

Central to the drama, she says, is the scene where she takes the sleeping potion given to her by Friar Lawrence, beginning with Juliet’s words: “I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins.” 

“It’s an amazing piece of writing,” she says, “full of so many fears.”

And yet she makes a quick decision –

“Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee,” she says, and swallows the potion.

“It’s a tragedy of circumstance, and society plays into that,” she says, “but so does the aloneness of the young people.”

Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, The Playhouse, August 29-September 7.