Collingwood's Bard by the Bay presents Romeo & Juliet

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?"

While the soft lighting might come from a sunset over Georgian Bay, and there are technically no windows at the outdoor performance at the Shipyards Amphitheatre, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet never fails to break your heart.

In its fifth season of outdoor Bard by the Bay performances, Theatre Georgian Bay is welcoming actors back to the stage after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus.

It was the play they were going to perform three years ago, said Nadia Hovan, a founding member of Theatre Georgian Bay, but then the pandemic arrived and even with COVID-19 protocols in place, they didn't feel they could do it justice.

"We did an online reading of Romeo and Juliet two years ago as a fundraiser. We've had to re-cast; some people moved on," she said.

The Bard on the Bay series began with a production of Twelfth Night, then A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, and A Comedy of Errors. Each has been staged at the Collingwood Shipyard Amphitheatre in a pay-what-you-wish format.

Play director Candy Pryce said the play has been edited to 90 minutes and there is no intermission.

"It's family-friendly and easier to take than when you had to read it in high school," Pryce said. "It's modernized to a certain extent in terms of the costumes and that kind of thing. It's got a lot of fun added to it," she said.

Romeo and Juliet runs for ten performances between July 25 and Aug. 1.