William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
The full script in Final Draft, Word & PDF
Two teenagers from feuding families fall in love and marry in secret, and a chain of misjudgments leads to tragedy in Verona.
PDFs Only
$4.99
- ✓ Stageplay PDF (113 pp.)
- ✓ Screenplay PDF (102 pp.)
- ✓ Instant download
Full Package
$12.99
- ✓ Final Draft (.fdx)
- ✓ Microsoft Word + RTF
- ✓ Screenplay + Stageplay PDFs
Need more than a few plays?
All 37 plays in every format cost $99, less than 8 single Full Packages. PDFs only: $55 for all 37.
- Genre
- Tragedy
- Written
- c. 1595–1596
- Setting
- Verona and Mantua
- Scenes
- 24
- Speaking roles
- 33
- Uncut running time
- ~3h 00m
What happens in Romeo and Juliet
In Verona the Montagues and Capulets are at odds, and street fights keep disturbing the city. Romeo, a Montague, crashes a Capulet party and falls in love with Juliet, the Capulets' daughter. With the help of Friar Laurence and Juliet's Nurse, the two are secretly married the next day.
Juliet's cousin Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, and Romeo kills Tybalt in return. The Prince banishes Romeo to Mantua, and Juliet's father arranges her marriage to Paris. A plan involving a sleeping potion goes wrong when a letter fails to arrive, and the final scene in the Capulet tomb ends the feud at great cost. Throughout, the Nurse and Friar Laurence are the lovers' only confidants.
See the formatting
The first page of Act I, exactly as it appears in the files you download.
The biggest roles
Share of the play's spoken words, counted from the script. 33 characters speak; 18 of them have under 1% of the text — natural candidates for doubling.
| Role | Share of the text | Speeches |
|---|---|---|
| Romeo | | 170 |
| Juliet | | 126 |
| Friar Laurence | | 61 |
| Nurse | | 92 |
| Capulet | | 57 |
| Mercutio | | 65 |
| Benvolio | | 64 |
| Lady Capulet | | 46 |
For directors
Romeo has 19.6% of the words and Juliet 18.0%, so the evening depends on two young actors, with Friar Laurence (11.4%), the Nurse (9.3%), Capulet (8.9%) and Mercutio (8.9%) as important supporting roles. The 33 speaking roles across 24 scenes include 18 under 1%, so doubling servants and citizens is straightforward. At about 3 hours uncut, most productions cut toward 2 hours 30 minutes. The fight scenes need staging time.
Cutting notes
- The scene with Peter and the musicians in 4.5 is often removed, since its comedy comes immediately after Juliet's apparent death.
- Friar Laurence's long explanations, including his closing recap in 5.3, are commonly trimmed.
- Bawdy exchanges among Mercutio, Benvolio and the Nurse are often shortened or glossed, depending on audience.
For teachers
Typical study topics include love and hate, fate and chance, youth versus age, and the use of the sonnet form and light-and-dark imagery. Students often examine the Prologue, the balcony scene in 2.2, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and the death of Tybalt in 3.1. The play is also a staple for comparing the Nurse's prose and the lovers' verse.
Questions
Is this the complete, uncut text of Romeo and Juliet?
Yes. Every file contains the full play — 24 scenes and about 24,000 spoken words. Cut it yourself in Word or Final Draft to fit your running time.
What is the difference between the stageplay and screenplay layouts?
The stageplay layout indents stage directions and sets dialogue full-width, like a theatre script. The screenplay layout follows film conventions: scene headings and action flush left, character names centred, dialogue in a narrower column. Both tiers include both layouts as PDFs; the Full Package adds editable Final Draft and Word files of each.
Can I use this Romeo and Juliet script for a production or a class?
Yes. Shakespeare's plays are in the public domain, so there are no royalties to pay for staging them. Edit, stage, film or teach with these files.
How do I receive the files?
Right after checkout you land on a private download page, and the link is also emailed to you. It keeps working, so you can re-download any time.
