Shakespeare’s Shoreditch

One of Steve’s oldest, dearest friends Mark Hix has reopened his chicken-and-steak restaurant, Tramshed, on Rivington Street. Steve wanted to give him a little something to celebrate the occasion; and, having recently discovered something about Shoreditch that he didn’t know before, it got him thinking…

Unlike what most of us have assumed for so long, The Globe wasn’t Shakespeare’s first playhouse; it was in fact the aptly named The Theatre on Curtain Road in Shoreditch. It was here, during the second half of the 16th century, that his most famous play, Romeo & Juliet, was first staged.

As a loyal advocate of cockney rhyming slang, Steve couldn’t help but imagine what Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers would have said now that the curtain’s been lifted on the truth about the play’s first performance. And neither could Mark.

Luckily, Shakespeare knew how to please a crowd. But luckier still, Steve knows how to please Shakespeare – and his friends. He’s wonderfully reimagined Romeo & Juliet on a spectacular pink poster because, after all, what better way to delight an East London audience than with a play written in proper East End slang?

So if you haven’t already, make sure you get down to Tramshed this weekend. Tuck into some amazing grub, and of course, get your eyes on Steve’s poster!