A short summary of Our project:

O Speak Again. Romeo and Juliet, Post Scriptum

Romeo and Juliet are dead.

Awaking at opposite ends of the Underworld, they discover that they are unable to speak, and are even more voiceless now than when they were alive. Determined to reunite, they embark on a haunting journey through the afterlife, where other Shakespearean souls linger, each forever bound by tragedy and silence.

Shakespeare’s legacy is woven from words, yet here, in this liminal space beyond speech, words fail. When language fractures and voices fade, how do we reach across the void? How do we find connection, understanding, and love — without a word spoken?

O Speak Again is a poignant exploration of silence, loss, and the enduring power of human connection beyond language itself.

O Speak Again — A Wordless Requiem for Shakespeare’s Lost Voices

But their story is not over.

Help bring our haunting new play to life.

Romeo and Juliet are dead.

In O Speak Again, an original, devised production by Fifth Floor Theatre, founded by East15 Graduates Leon Aschwanden, Giulia Arico and Giulia Cristescu, we invite you into the shadowed realms of the Underworld—not a place of fire and torment, but of silence. Here, even words have unraveled. Shakespeare’s most iconic lovers awaken in a mute afterlife, more voiceless now than ever before, and must find each other again in a world where nothing speaks—only memory, gesture, and longing.

This is not a retelling, not a sequel, but something stranger, bolder, more intimate: a ritual of mourning and recognition, a physical and emotional elegy for Shakespeare’s voices—those whose tongues once shaped the world, now stilled.

In this silence, Romeo and Juliet are not alone. They encounter other ghosts of Shakespeare’s world:

Falstaff, his gluttony turned to endless hunger, his laughter hollow.

Lady Macbeth, queen without a crown, her ambition and guilt cloaked in silence.

Angelo, the hypocrite judge, wandering in ruins, judged by his own obsession.

Edmund, bastard and schemer, his envy still burning in his accusing eyes.

Through movement, shadow, light, and an original score, we tell their stories without words—because here, in this Underworld, there are no soliloquies. Only the ache of what was lost, and the fragile hope of what might still be found.

We are Fifth Floor Theatre, an emerging international company of East15 graduates, dedicated to creating bold, collaborative work that reimagines the classics through physical theatre and design-driven storytelling. This is our first collaborative project—and we need your help to make it happen.

Why we need your support:

Theatre of this scale and ambition needs more than love and late nights (though we’ve got plenty of both). Our first performance of; O Speak Again, will be at the Teatro Camploy in Verona, Italy, on the 19th of September 2025. Being an international touring theatre company is expensive and that's exactly why we need you help.

Your contribution will help us: Booking rehearsal paces and pay for travel and accommodation for our six cast members and crew. Build our haunting Underworld through set, costume, and lighting design. Commission and record our original score. Stage the show in professional venues and take it to festivals to share it with audiences far and wide. Make this work accessible through outreach, discounted tickets, and filmed content. 

Our Travel expenses will be around 850 Euros for six people to travel to Italy. The accommodation will cost around 900 Euros for three days for six people, seven people if we can afford to bring an extra member for tech.  Some of the expenses will be taken care of by a program by the Festival we are performing at, and have already been covered by their finances (such as  additional costs of transportation in Verona as well as food and beverages.) Props and costume will be made by the company from recycled goods and pre existing material, therefore the only cost being time.

Every pound, euro, or dollar you give goes directly to the artists and the craft of telling this story, as well as creating the possibility to take this show to more international and national stages and festivals.

Why now?

In a time when the world feels loud yet so disconnected, we believe this story needs to be told.

How do we find connection when words fail?

What stops us from moving on?

What’s the cost of isolation?

We believe that theatre can speak to what cannot be said—and we hope you’ll help us prove it.

Thank you for your support!

Fifth Floor Theatre

"Every silence is full. Every gesture speaks."