The title characters are the big timbers in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".
But there are other characters who act like the glue binding the play together.
Those include Juliet's nurse, the main character in the novel called, fittingly, Juliet's Nurse.
Portlander Lois Leveen is the author of this look at one of the legendary settings of Shakespeare from a different angle.
Lois joins us in studio to talk about her work and the larger context of Shakespeare.