The first thing you see when you enter the
historic Strand auditorium for Actors’
Shakespeare Project’s ROMEO AND JULIET (playing through Nov. 3rd) is
Janie E. Howland’s ingenious “O” (as in Shakespeare’s “Wooden O.”) Some of the
audience is seated on the curved stage so that the circular sweep of the “O”
leads the eye to the front section below, where the rest of the audience sits.
For once the Strand feels cozy! (You don’t
even notice the empty, unused seats in the back.) Howland’s ancient balustrade
on the weathered stucco dwelling where Romeo will scale the balcony (for the
best gravity defying kiss of any R&J production I’ve seen) adds
immeasurably to the authentic 16th century atmosphere of the piece.
Directors Bobbie Steinbach and Allyn Burrows
have made more than a few clever changes to the staging (and the text): The
duels which are almost always staged with swordplay are now fought with knives,
conjuring up rival gang warfare. Kathleen Doyle’s inventive costumes are a
grand mix of classic and contemporary, emphasizing the timelessness of the
story: Needless feuds are causing violence, in families and factions all over
the world even today, especially today, so the directors draw the audience in,
with an almost magnetic force. Actors stride the aisles, turn verse into rap
and high-five people in the audience when a point is well taken.
ASP also takes a couple of certainties and
tweaks them for wonderful effect: One, at the end, is a very effective
surprise—which I won’t reveal. The other is the impact of Romeo’s comrade,
Mercutio. Mind you, he’s always vital to the action but Maurice Emmanuel Parent
makes him the star. He’s the one who sets the tragedy in motion and he’s the
one who curses the two houses of Montague and Capulet.
He struts about, hooting and caterwauling and
he even dances “with catlike tread.” (Doyle gives him a mask for the ball with
feathers sticking up like ears!) You cannot take your eyes off him for a moment
because you might miss his marvelous antics, up and down the Capulet stairs,
over and across the passageway behind the balcony. He’s a whirlwind. He makes
you pay attention to Shakespeare’s glorious language, delivering the Queen Mab
speech with a flourish. How about that!
I don’t mean to neglect Romeo, a sincere and
athletic (the kiss!) Jason Bowen and Juliet, a lovely, effusive Julie Ann
Earls. If it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t have Ken Baltin as Juliet’s
commanding father or Paige Clark as a perky Benvolio (here Benvolia so she
and Mercutio can be “off to bed” and it means something entirely new!)
The directors have reassigned some speeches
and ditched a number of characters, including the Montague parents—and I, for
one, didn’t miss them at all. Paula Langton is a much younger, more flirtatious
Nurse than I’m used to and Miranda Craigwell becomes Lord Capulet’s “trophy
wife”—odd but interesting choices—but one decision left me flummoxed. Why
doesn’t Romeo hold Mercutio back so that Tybalt (a headstrong Omar Robinson)
has the terrible opportunity to skewer him? Much recrimination hinges thereon,
methinks… but they must have a reason for changing it.
The best thing about ASP’s ROMEO AND JULIET
is the visceral hold it has on the audience. You’re shocked, excited and
delighted with the humor (too often neglected) Shakespeare uses to tell the
story of sublime, reckless, impetuous youth.
