Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink bring playful chemistry to Romeo & Juliet ahead of West End opening
noah jupe and Sadie Sink stunned on the 2026 BAFTA red carpet and have been photographed cooking up a La Dolce Vita–style romance as they prepare to star in Robert Icke’s Romeo & Juliet at the Harold Pinter Theatre, a run the creative team says opens next month and is noted elsewhere as opening on March 16.
BAFTA night and a fast-forming partnership
The two actors turned heads at the BAFTAs today in glamorous looks, and both have acknowledged they’d only rehearsed together twice before walking the carpet. Jupe, who has been jet-lagged from a trip to Los Angeles for the Golden Globes where his film Hamnet won big, described the pair’s quick rapport: they finished each other’s sentences and bonded over navigating fame at a young age. He praised Sink, saying, “She’s so cool, man, she’s annoyingly cool, and she’s so, like, chill and lovely and professional. I honestly really respect her in a big way. ”
Dinner at Ida, fashion and the photos that sold the pairing
Hours before an evening service at Ida, a tiny family-run neighbourhood Italian in west London, the windows steamed up as an umbrella-buckling January downpour hit outside. Inside, beneath gallery walls hung with vintage Fellini posters, Sink and Jupe sipped Sangiovese and fed each other pomodoro pasta under candlelight while stylists and crew watched amid a swirl of fashion rails. The shoot produced posters that are now papering London’s billboards and Tube tunnels: Sink in a Tom Ford slip dress; Jupe shown in both a wool jacket and cotton/linen shirt by Celine and in another look with a sweater by Ferragamo. Jupe laughed that the staged intimacy summed up their chemistry: “This is basically mine and Sadie’s entire relationship. ”
Robert Icke’s ‘version of now’ Verona and the play’s timing
Both performers will play Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet in director-playwright Robert Icke’s new production, which reimagines the story in a “version of now” Verona. Icke has framed the piece less as inevitable tragedy and more as a study of fragile timing: messages fail, moments slip away, and, as he put it, if Romeo arrived at Juliet’s tomb about four minutes later he would find her alive. Icke drew inspiration from the 1998 film Sliding Doors and has just wrapped a Broadway transfer of his Oedipus adaptation starring Lesley Manville and Mark Strong.
Where the actors are coming from — Hamnet, Stranger Things and the stage
Jupe, 21, arrives fresh off Hamnet, a film that won big at the Golden Globes; he appears in that production alongside his younger brother Jacobi Jupe and said working with Paul Mescal taught him to embrace humility and passion on set. Jupe has worked with directors like Chloé Zhao and has acted in acclaimed projects since age 10, learning on film sets rather than through a formal RADA education; he has said he once wondered, “Can I do Shakespeare if I haven’t been to RADA?” Working on Hamnet with Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Emily Mortimer gave him his first accessible Shakespeare experience.
Sink, 23 and a Texas native, is reckoning with the end of Stranger Things after nearly 10 years in the role of Max Mayfield. She made her Broadway debut at age 10 in Annie and earned a Tony nomination for John Proctor Is the Villain. She was filming a top-secret role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day during earlier meetings with Icke and described that project as “the most Zen” she’s ever felt; she offered a knowing smile when asked about spending time in the city with co-stars Tom Holland and Zendaya.
Preparing for the West End and the plan to ‘make it fun’
Sink and Jupe described a rapid creative spark: Icke’s first, arranged meeting with Sink last summer stretched into a four-hour conversation that led him to cast both leads. The pair said they did a chemistry read that lasted about an hour and quickly moved to a full-on photoshoot. Both admitted initial intimidation at tackling Shakespeare, but their recent film and stage work has given them confidence. They’ve said the shared aim is to “make it fun” and to keep audiences invested in a story theatregoers think they already know.
The production is scheduled to open at the Harold Pinter Theatre next month, with a March 16 opening date noted, and will mark the West End pairing of Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe as they move from high-profile screen work to Shakespeare onstage.
