Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink ready to “make it fun” in West End Romeo & Juliet
noah jupe and Sadie Sink arrive in London as a late-winter pairing for Robert Icke’s Romeo & Juliet, bringing recent career milestones and an unexpectedly easy rapport to a production that reframes timing and coincidence. Their West End debut, rehearsed only sparingly so far, matters because the production reimagines Verona in a version of now and opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre next month with a March 16 performance on the schedule.
Noah Jupe and Sadie Sink on the 2026 BAFTAs red carpet
The two stunned on the 2026 BAFTA red carpet today in glamorous looks, a high-profile moment that preceded their West End launch together. Observers noted a chemistry that now matches what they will bring to the Harold Pinter Theatre; the pair have rehearsed together only twice before the BAFTA appearance, and preparation is progressing well, Jupe said. Their rapid public pairing followed a brief chemistry read and a later full photoshoot for posters that are papering London billboards and Tube tunnels.
Photoshoot at Ida and the La Dolce Vita tableau
A few hours before evening service at Ida, a tiny family-run neighbourhood Italian in west London, the windows were steaming up while an umbrella-buckling January downpour raged outside. Inside, beneath gallery walls hung with vintage Fellini posters, Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe sat in La Dolce Vita–style clothes, sipping Sangiovese and feeding each other pomodoro pasta by candlelight. Stylists, fashion rails and crew circled the pair; the scene was so intimate some found it hard to believe they weren’t a besotted couple. Jupe, primped and preened once the camera shutters paused, laughed: “This is basically mine and Sadie’s entire relationship. ”
Robert Icke’s ‘version of now’ Verona and the play’s fragile timing
Director and playwright Robert Icke framed the production as less interested in tragedy than in the coincidence that brings Romeo and Juliet together. Icke described how fragile the events are that lead to catastrophe: “It’s so fragile, the way the events lead to each other, ” he said, noting that messages fail and timing can betray lovers. He offered a concrete if chilling example: “If Romeo were to turn up at Juliet’s tomb about four minutes later, he would find her alive and they’d be absolutely fine. ” Icke, an award-winning adaptor whose latest Oedipus starring Lesley Manville and Mark Strong has just wrapped an acclaimed Broadway transfer, set this Romeo & Juliet in a “version of now” Verona and drew inspiration from the 1998 cult film Sliding Doors.
Career context: Hamnet, Stranger Things, Broadway and early starts
Both performers enter the West End run at different inflection points. Sink, 23, is reckoning with the end of Stranger Things, the televisual juggernaut to which she has dedicated almost 10 years and in which she defined herself as Max Mayfield. The Texas native made her Broadway debut at age 10 in Annie and recently earned a Tony nomination for John Proctor Is the Villain. Jupe, 21, arrived in London jet-lagged from Los Angeles after his film Hamnet won big at the Golden Globes; he appears in that production alongside his younger brother Jacobi Jupe, who plays the actor performing Hamlet himself. Jupe has worked with directors such as Chloé Zhao and has appeared in acclaimed projects since age 10. Both actors said they were initially intimidated by Shakespeare: Jupe once wondered, “Can I do Shakespeare if I haven’t been to RADA?” He called his work on Hamnet, alongside Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Emily Mortimer, his first accessible Shakespeare experience, and said he learned humility and passion from working with Paul Mescal on that film.
How the casting came together and what they hope to do on stage
The casting stemmed from a first meeting last summer in London that agents arranged while Sink was filming a top-secret role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. What should have been a quick conversation stretched to a four-hour meeting; the director later said the encounter was the moment he saw potential in Sink and knew she was meant for the role. That four-hour conversation also helped set the creative rapport that led to Jupe’s casting as Romeo. Jupe praised Sink’s professionalism and coolness—“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. ”
Both actors have spoken about keeping the production lively: Sink described Shakespeare as offering “endless opportunities to expand characters beyond traditional interpretations, ” and the pair have said their shared goal is to “make it fun” and keep audiences invested in a story everyone already knows. With only a handful of rehearsals together so far and posters already visible around London, audiences will see that approach when the production opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre next month, including the scheduled March 16 performance.
