Love in the open air for star-crossed pair

May 21 2009 By Polly Manser, Buckinghamshire Advertiser

IT WAS love at first sight for Jennie Christo and Lawrence Green when they met at an Italian restaurant and shared a plate of spaghetti.

Or rather it will be, when this handsome couple play the world's most celebrated lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in this year's much-anticipated offering by Chiltern Shakespeare Company, which will take place, as it has for 20 years, in the open air amid beautiful surroundings on the Hall Barn Estate in Beaconsfield in June.

Lawrence, 20, from Chesham, is a former pupil of Amersham School and Clement Danes School, who has trained for three years at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has performed in several blockbuster and independent films.

He is now hoping to secure a place at one of three leading drama schools; landing the part of Romeo will surely help him to do that.

Jennie, 24, from Hatfield, is a graduate of East 15 Acting School and has appeared on many London stages, including the Soho Theatre, where she played Sofia in Jane Austen's early work, The Three Sisters.

The couple met up at Il Bertorelli in Old Amersham on Monday to soak up some Italian atmosphere before their last two weeks of rehearsals of one of Shakespeare's best-loved play, which director Philip Shenhan has set in 1930s Italy.

But what if it rains? Won't that spoil the illusion? Robert Norrie, publicity officer, said that was extremely unlikely.

"People think it rains in this country all the time, but 98 per cent of the time we are all right.

"In 20 years we've only had to stop the show once, and call it off once in advance. The seated area of the auditorium is covered, and the actors carry on in light rain, although last year they did carry on with umbrellas.

"Sometimes we do have to pause for a while, a bit like Wimbledon before they got the new roof."

Gates open two hours before the play starts, to allow time for picnicking on the lawn or next to the ornamental lake.

* Romeo and Juliet will be performed from June 10 to 13 and 17 to 20. See www.chiltern-shakespeare.com  or call the box office on 08700 667 720.