The themes of Romeo and Juliet were ever thus and are still extant today. Think of the mileage creators get out of soap operas, for instance. Their themes aren’t that dissimilar to those of this enduringly loved tragedy: themes such as castrating societal demands, neighbourhood antagonisms, adultery, rivalry, love, death, and perhaps most telling of all, the fatality of bad timing.

No need to point out, of course, that as a scriptwriter, Shakespeare’s versions are more than a cut above.

As a choreographer, Andrea Schermoly’s version of Romeo and Juliet – created for The Royal New Zealand Ballet and now re-staged here in Western Australia – aims to reflect her specific viewpoint as a woman, where she has felt “emboldened to highlight the tenacious wilfulness of Juliet.”

What actually stands out in this production is Lord Montague’s welcome to Romeo at the Montagues’ ball and chastisement of Tybalt’s fury at Romeo’s presence. A point not pursued, but seeming to suggest that it is the young who are perpetuating the feud, and that perhaps if Romeo and Juliet had talked to the rulers, their love could have succeeded. But this, then, is what makes this play so beguiling and eternal — the what-ifs.