Beginners Please present Romeo and Juliet Tickets

16,789 offences involving a bladed weapon were recorded in London last year, that’s roughly one every 30 minutes. And, despite accounting for less than 20% of the population of England and Wales, the capital is responsible for almost a third of all incidents in these two countries. From March 2023 to March 2024 there were just over 3,200 knife or offensive-weapon offences committed by children (resulting in a caution or conviction). During this time period, 57 young people aged under 25 were murdered with a knife or sharp object - 17 of which were under 16 years old.

Beginners Please, a new community theatre initiative from Trafalgar Entertainment Trust, shares the stories behind the statistics, and the human figures behind the numerical ones. The company’s first production, a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, relocates the tragedy to the London Borough of Verona: two young enemies fall in love, a turf war erupts, and devastation follows.

What makes this staging radical is that almost all of the young cast, who will all make their West End debut at the Trafalgar Theatre on 16 November, have been directly affected by knife crime.