These Violent Delights
Juliet’s dance on the edge of eternity
A new feature film by Scottish Ballet
Juliet awakens from a fever dream. How did we get here?
The lines between hallucination and memory blur as cinema and dance collide in a kaleidoscopic journey of queer belonging, defiance, and self-discovery.
A vivid retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet brought to life by Scottish Ballet.
#theseviolentdelightsfilm
Certificate: 15
In UK and Irish cinemas from 21 October. Find a screening near you…
Wednesday 21st October
Castle Douglas – Keystone Touring at Fullarton Theatre
Dundee – Dundee Contemporary Arts
Glasgow – Glasgow Film Theatre
Keswick – Alhambra Cinema | Wednesday 21st & Sunday 25th October
Lerwick, Shetland – Mareel
Newcastle upon Tyne – Tyneside Cinema
Nottingham – The Bonington
Richmond – Station Cinema
Romford – Lumiere Cinema | Wednesday 21st & Sunday 25th October
Welwyn Garden City – Campus West Cinema
October
Colchester – Firstsite | Friday 23rd & Thursday 29th October
Alnwick – Alnwick Playhouse | Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th October
November
Leek – Foxlowe Arts Centre | Tuesday 24th November
January
Hertford – BEAM | Thursday 7th January (mat)
Reviews
‘A triumphant adventure that secures Scottish Ballet’s place at the very cutting edge of exciting, innovative, yet wholly accessible dance and film’
The List
‘An outstanding artistic achievement’
The Herald
‘A reimagined masterpiec’
The New Current
‘An engrossing and fiercely physical dance film’
The Guardian
‘The cutting edge of dance on screen’
Corr Blimey
‘The performances are nuanced, the technicals are of the highest stock, and the whole thing shines like a diamond. This is ballet done right. Sleek, modern and sexy. ’
A Youngish Perspective
Creatives
Composer
John Lemke
Production and Costume Designer
Sami Fendall
Director of Photography
David Liddell
Sound Designer
William Aikman
Trailer
Gallery
Synopsis
Juliet wakes in The Apothecary, traces of death surrounding them: daggers, spilt poison, Romeo’s body.
Rewind.
Dragged into a fevered hallucination, Juliet slips between memory and nightmare as shadowy figures pull them back through the moments that led here.
They drift between the mirrored dining rooms of the Capulets and Montagues – two families divided by pride and ambition. At the Capulet table, Paris is paraded as a suitor; Juliet refuses the future mapped out for them. At the Montague feast, they are unseen – more ghost than guest. The worlds fracture and reform. Romeo, restless within his family’s restraint, retreats into his journal until Benvolio and his boyfriend Mercutio shatter his solitude, luring him towards a night of abandon.
Urged by Nurse to escape expectation, Juliet seeks refuge at The Apothecary, a queer club reclaimed from an abandoned building and presided over by the drag Sisters Laurence and Giovanna. Beneath neon light and pulsing music, Romeo arrives. Across a haze of glitter and sweat, their eyes meet. The connection is immediate, intoxicating. In a flamboyant ritual before the crowd, their love is sanctified.
Outside, Tybalt’s resentment curdles. A confrontation erupts; Mercutio is wounded and, in the chaos, Romeo sends Tybalt to his death. Reeling, Juliet agrees to appease their parents by courting Paris while secretly planning to flee.
Back at The Apothecary, Juliet takes a pill to escape reality and sends a defiant message, mistaken for a suicide note. Believing Juliet dead, Romeo rushes to them with poison in hand.
We end where we began.
