All the web's a stage

What do you get if you take a 400-year-old play, set it in modern life and have the actors play it out live in real time on Twitter? Such Tweet Sorrow is what.

The new online project aims to bring Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to audiences who might not step in a theatre by setting the story of star-crossed lovers torn apart by family feuds in real time Britain with six actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company tweeting in character.

The play is produced by Mudlark and will pan out over five weeks (one week per act). Two writers have scripted the play so the actors know where their characters are supposed to be at any given point in the day, and will go about tweeting their thoughts, feelings and whereabouts. The writers are also there to adapt the play depending on the interactivity from other users of the microblogging site.

One of the writers, Bethan Marlow, lives and works in Cardiff and got involved with the project after director Roxana Silbert saw her own online play Hatty Rainbow - a video blog from a girl leaving a commune to go to university in Cardiff.

"I was playing with the form of a play through Hatty Rainbow." she said. "You have to justify why they are filming themselves - so Hatty had no one else to tell. That's the exciting and challenging bit.

"What's cool about it from the perspective of the writer is that we are right on the front line. It's online stuff it's so interchangeable and so live that a writer has to be at the front.

"The actors have got boundaries for each day, but within those restrictions they have a lot of creativity – as a writer you have to be really giving and also give people control."

The play being acted out online in real time means a certain flexibility with the script is needed – with actors bouncing off comments from their followers. The story so far also shows how the play will be loosely based on Shakespeare's original – with newer fresh elements being brought into the storyline (the characters will respond to current events like the general election).

"I hope people will realise Shakespeare's work is relative to today. I want people to be able to interact with the characters and connect with them," Marlow said.

Today Juliet went to school – she only started tweeting yesterday - and Tybalt isn't enjoying life in public school ("Retweet if you think school is crap"). The Nurse has taken on the role of Juliet's bigger sister, Jess – she's running the London marathon and encouraging Juliet to have a party for her 16th birthday. Mercutio told us he'd lost his iPhone and Juliet shared a Youtube video of her bedroom. Romeo is yet to appear on twitter – but you can look out for him later this week. There's also a tumblr account from a character called Jago here.

You can follow all the characters on the live timeline and read more about the project on the play's website here. See Bethan Marlow's profile on the National Theatre Wales Community website here where she is involved in the up and coming production of The Beach.