[NEohioPAL] Review of Great Lake Theater's "Romeo and Juliet"

[Bob Abelman]

Creative vision, not passion, drives GLT's 'Romeo and Juliet' 

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 4/20/12

 

 

"A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love and the continuance of their parents' rage. Is now the two hours traffic of our stage."

 

A key component in all tragedies is that the audience knows from the get-go the ill fate of its heroes.  As such, these plays are all about the journey from the blindly innocent beginnings, to the precarious choices that are made, to their preordained conclusions.  "Romeo and Juliet" presents the final destination in the prologue and the Great Lakes Theater has taken this as an invitation to follow a particularly intriguing path in its production.

 

One of Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime, "Romeo and Juliet" features two teenaged lovers whose suicides unite their feuding families and serve as perpetual reminders of the power and significance of young love.  Written during a time of great civil unrest and sectarian hostility, the family row in the play serves to represent the political and religious tensions occurring beyond the proscenium.

 

The Great Lakes Theater chose to transport the 16th century Verona, Italy of this play to a more modern era where similar pathogens filled the air:  the late 1920s, when the war-torn city is in the midst of recovery from the first World War and engaged in a burgeoning alignment with fascism.

 

Typical of the soft hand director Charlie Fee lends to other stylistic make-overs of Shakespeare's works (as opposed to last year's fun but obtrusive alteration of "Taming of the Shrew" by GLT director Tracy Young), this change in timeline merely informs this production.  

 

The results are mixed.

 

The set, designed by Gage Williams, consists of a massive, 400 year-old fragment of architecture reinforced by metal scaffolding, metaphorically suggesting that the old is being supported by the new.  This metaphor is as attractive as it is functional, lending depth, layers and variety to the show's staging.

 

The 1920s era allows for wonderful period costuming by Star Moxley in the place of the standard Elizabethan garb that has attached itself to this play since its creation.  This adds a touch of flair and some distinction to the aristocratic Montagues and the entrepreneurial 

Capulets. 

 

It also informs Rick Martin's lighting design, affording him the opportunity to employ film noir-inspired shadowing to embellish all that is wonderfully dramatic and tragic in this play.  

 

The most obvious and risky influence of modernizing the play can be found in Betsy Mugavero's portrayal of Juliet.  No mere beauty and no singularly naïve waif, this 14 year old has 1920's era moxie.  Old enough to earn her M.F.A., Mugavero is remarkably pubescent in manner and emotional make up on stage, and an absolute delight to watch.

 

Though solid, Christian Durso's portrayal of Romeo is not similarly adolescent or a creature of the '20's, and this mismatch may be why some will have difficulty connecting to Romeo and Juliet's immediate infatuation with one another. In order to generate love so pure and passionate that it can find no place in this world, the title characters need to be on the same page.

 

The disconnect between these two originates during the pivotal scene where they first meet.  Much of the scene is set in the back recesses of the stage rather than at a more intimate proximity to the audience, and seems rushed by the rapid delivery of dialogue (appreciated elsewhere in a play that clocks in a 2 hours and 40 minutes).  We are able to witness the rapturous love between Romeo and Juliet but are unable to feel the heat.  In fact, while the sweet language used to describe it is delivered with precision, the passion between these two seems to have not made the journey to the early-20th century.  

 

Still, this is a uniformly stellar cast, with Aled Davis as the hot-headed Capulet, J. Todd Adams as the mercurial Mercutio, and Laurie Birmingham as Juliet's protective Nurse turning in particularly wonderful performances.  

 

Wonderful, too, is the stage fighting designed and coordinated by Ken Merckx.  Blending acrobatics, comedy and sabre-sharp precision, the battle between Adams' Mercutio and Dan Lawrence's Tybalt, as well as the group mêlée that opens the production, are top-notch.

 

This production's strengths clearly overshadow its few short-comings, as is evident in the play's final scene.  Although you have known it was coming since the prologue, the death of Romeo and Juliet is remarkably poignant and climactic.

   

"Romeo and Juliet" continues through April 28 at PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theatre in downtown Cleveland.  For tickets, which range from $15 to $70, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.greatlakestheater.org.
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