My original Romeo and Jude audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

In this latest Audible Original Drama, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is contemporized with a fresh LGBT twist on the classic play as it explores gender and sexuality.

The setting is suburban England. Miranda is the new and rather strong-minded director in charge of producing Romeo and Juliet for the local amateur dramatics society. In Shakespeare's times, it was common for men to play female roles. But when Jude, a recent university drop-out in his twenties who is unapologetically sure of his sexual preference, is cast in the role of Juliet, suburbia feels uncomfortable. Jude's father is a terrible bully and homophobic. Ray, who is cast as Romeo, is a middle-aged recent divorcé and a failing business owner. To keep his cardboard company from folding, he is dependent on funding from Jude's father. So when life imitates art, and Ray and Jude fall in love, the proverbial .... hits the fan. Violence and tragedy ensue forcing Ray and Jude to go on the run across England.

As the story develops, so do the characters. Jude and Ray discover more things about themselves and who they really are or want to be. Apart from Ray and Jude, I particularly loved Miranda, the play director, who added a lot of hilarity to the play and also has her own tragic story play out.

Beautifully written, this was a very moving, in parts suspenseful, in parts funny, story about prejudice, about attitudes towards same-sex relationships and relationships with an age difference. It contains sex, violence, and strong language.

The voice actors were outstanding, and that applies to the entire cast. Whoever cast these voice artists into their respective roles for this production did a fantastic job. Every character sounded just right and gave the play a fantastic authentic feeling. The production was brilliant, the music was fitting, and the sound effects enhanced the experience.

If you like radio plays you will love this production and you don't need to be a Shakespeare connoisseur to enjoy this adaptation. It was quite different from what I would normally listen to, but I really enjoyed it and finished it in one sitting.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher. ( )