What would Christmas be without Eric and Ernie, (if you live in the US you'll have to google them), but I bet you never thought that their names would come up in a conversation about Romeo & Juliet! Here is an excerpt of an article from Scotland on Sunday, July 23, 2000:
"We have just had a mordantly funny Morecambe and Wise moment. Romeo is skulking in the background, desperately trying to catch his friend Benvolio's eye as their mate Mercutio makes one filthy pun after another. Each attempt by the two young men to make eye contact ends with everybody in the room corpsing with laughter.
"It's pure Eric and Ernie, isn't it?" murmurs Michael Boyd, the Royal Shakespeare Company director rehearsing Shakespeare's romantic tragedy prior to its Stratford-upon-Avon opening.
It was Bathgate-born actor David Tennant's idea that they should introduce this bit of business into Act II, scene 1, when the hung- over Montague lads go in search of Romeo. "You were doing an Eric," Boyd grins at Tennant, the lanky 29-year-old playing Romeo. "No, I wasn't," denies Tennant. "I was pushing energy up from the back of the stage."
"Yeah, well, much as we all love Eric and Ernie, and Shirley Bassey tripping up over the scenery, let us forget that idea and get back to the main business of this scene. Which is everybody talking about shagging," Boyd declares unequivocally."