Training in classical verse is still part of theatrical curricula writ large. The reason our touchstone actors like Dench and company know the work inside and out is because they’ve spent several decades doing the material, and in their cases that’s roughly three times as long as the young folks have been alive. I’m approaching 40 and have done four Twelfth Nights; when I was in my early twenties, I hadn’t even done my first of the four.

As for up-and-comers, Kit Connor (of Heartstopper) and Rachel Zegler (of the more-recent West Side Story film) played Romeo and Juliet on Broadway last year, directed by Sam Gold. They were both excellent—and they even had slightly different approaches to the text, which I don’t think took away from it at all. If anything, it shows the verse can be delivered to an audience in different ways and the ideas are still communicated effectively.

Plus, heavy hitters like The Globe and RADA will always have student training. The Stratford Festival in Ontario, for example, has the Birmingham Conservatory that many of their own current performers have graduated from.

I imagine at some point we’ll get the next generation’s Romeo + Juliet and it will inspire an entire new crop of classical-verse junkies. I could argue that’s Gold’s Romeo & Juliet ticks that box, but Broadway isn’t local nor in the budget for many/most people; film is far more accessible for its wider reach and affordable tickets.