TO mark St Valentine’s Day, two contrasting retellings of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet come to the big screen at the Minehead Regal next week.

The Royal Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet from the Royal Opera House will be given a special screening at the Regal on Monday, February 14, at 7.15pm, and Stephen Spielberg’s highly acclaimed new film West Side Story (Cert 12A) will be screened on Saturday, February 19, at 7.30pm.

The 20th Century ballet masterpiece Romeo and Juliet, with glorious music by Sergei Prokofiev, has become a great modern classic of the ballet repertory since its creation by Royal Ballet Director Kenneth MacMillan and its premiere in 1965.

The doomed lovers meet and fall in love amidst the colour and action of Renaissance Verona, where a busy market bursts into sword fighting and a family feud leads to tragedy for both the Montagues and the Capulets.

Spielberg’s brand-new screen adaptation of the 1957 musical West Side Story is as good as it gets. The musical was originally conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, it is set in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York and tells the story of two lovers who belong to rival street gangs.

The running time for The Royal Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet is three hours and 25 minutes, including two intervals. Tickets cost £15.50 (Regal Film Society Film Society members/Friends, full-time students/unemployed £13, under 14s £10).

Tickets for West Side Story cost £5 (Regal Film Society members, Friends, students/under 14s £3) and all tickets may be booked in advance online and at the Regal box office (Tel 01643 706430) between 9.30am and 12.00pm or by telephone only from 1.30pm to 4pm, Monday to Saturday.

The Regal bar will be open 30 minutes before curtain up. Some Covid restrictions remain in place to ensure that audiences and volunteers are protected. Everyone will be asked to use the hand sanitiser provided and wear a face mask at all times, except when eating or drinking.