Orchestras and theatre companies rarely collaborate. The current revival of Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour enlists the services of the Southbank Sinfonia. Apart from that, concert musicians and actors steer clear of each other. You can see why. It costs a lot of money to employ an orchestra. And once you’ve put 70-plus musicians on a stage, there’s no much room for anyone else. Undaunted by pragmatism, next month brings a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Philharmonia Orchestra. And 250 schoolchildren.
The name of the joint venture is "Alike in Dignity", which should give you some idea of their rendezvous point. The idea is to visit Romeo and Juliet – both Shakespeare’s play and Prokofiev’s opera - in a series of workshops for 250 Leicester schoolchildren. Why Leicester? The Philharmonia is the resident orchestra. The fruits of their labour will be performed on 15 March at the city’s magnificent new theatre, The Curve. You only hope that musicians and actors - not to mention the schoolchildren - hit it off better than Montagues and Capulets.