with Nova Pilbeam as Juliet
Alec Guinness as Romeo
also the Nurse, Mercutio, and Benvolio
Produced and arranged by Barbara Burnham
For the first time in this wartime series of scenes from great plays a star actor and actress have been engaged for the leads, and in no play ever written are the right players for the parts more essential than in Romeo and Juliet. They need not be stars: in fact it has been said of Juliet that no actress can have the emotional experience to play the part until she is too old. That is cynical. Like Romeo, she must be young. These tragic lovers of all time must be ideal. On the stage they must look the parts as well as be able to speak them. On the air they must get over by their voices.
As listeners know, no one has a lovelier or more expressive voice on the air than Nova Pilbeam. Her Margaret, the dream child, in Barrie's "Dear Brutus" was as admirable as her Mary Rose. She is not yet twenty. At twelve years of age she made her debut as a child actress as Marigold in "Toad of Toad Hall". At sixteen she played Peter Pan. And she had already made her name in films - "Little Friend" and "The Man who Knew Too Much". Who so young could be better cast for Juliet?
In Alec Guinness, she is to broadcast opposite one of the best of our younger actors. Many listeners must have seen him as Hamlet at the Old Vic in their modern-dress production. Still more will have heard him broadcasting in the part of Konstantin in "The Seagull" four months ago.