Snippitts of Illusions

Arm Chair Theater-goer's review of The DAC's Romeo and Juliet

I love the theater.
The longer I stay away from it, the more I long for it. It's been two years since I've done a play and several more since I've done anything with a large production value. Still going to see a show now and then is wonderful, and I don't do it nearly enough though I hope to continue to remedy that in the future. Going to see Shakespeare is always... hit or miss.

Shakespeare is a popular playwright to turn to. All of his works are in the public domain, generally require big casts so will guarantee a large audience of friends and family members at the very least and his name is recognizable so there's that pull as well. Shakespeare however has no easy plays. He writes in what is early modern English and there is much innuendo and nuance to his words lost on modern audiences, NOT because we are dumb, but because the words are used in entirely different ways now or are not used often at all. Presenting a Shakespeare play in such a way that it is accessible to the modern audience is hard. There's a reason that there are "Shakespearean Actors" these individuals have taken a great deal of time to actually find the nuance in the language and let that translate naturally from the character they are portraying. It's a challenge. It's a lot of work, especially for community theater, so it's a tremendous kudos to the cast of Davis Arts Council's production of Romeo and Juliet that they gave the kind of nuanced performance that made the play accessible to the audience.

The Davis Arts Council's production of Romeo and Juliet presents the play in such a way that the intents of the characters are clear. It's not an actor on stage speaking the lines, it's Benvolio, Juliet, Tybalt and Mercutio speaking the lines. So rarely does a non-professional production pull off any Shakespeare play that it's a sheer joy to see one so well done. Though the company for this production may be non-professional, it's abundantly apparent that most of the actors have trained and are considerably experienced, some working in professional shows through out their lives. It takes that kind of serious dedication to pull off a good production of any play let alone Shakespeare. It's also to the director Mark Fossen's credit as he has pulled the very best from his actors.

For the one of you who's not familiar with Romeo and Juliet, I'm disappointed, but here's a quick refresher. The Montague's and the Capulets have been feuding now for generations, while the Prince Esculas and his family try and maintain the peace of the city. Romeo pines after one girl after the next, his current love is Rosaline and in an effort to cheer him up some of his cousins and his best friend Mercutio decide to take him to a party at the House of the Capulets in disguise. Romeo's recognized by Tybalt who swears that he'll kill Romeo for this insult but not before Romeo falls for Juliet. Well you should know the rest of the story, the woo each other in the moonlight. Get married. All hell breaks loose and Mercutio is killed by Tybalt. Tybalt is killed by Romeo in revenge, and Romeo is banished but not before him and Juliet have a night together. Then after a series of complete misunderstandings and messages not arriving, and people being in the wrong place at the wrong time the couple is dead, the Prince's kinsmen is dead and for good measure Lady Montague is dead. That's the play in a quick nutshell.

There's some truly impressive performances in this show. First off Benvolio and Romeo were both strong actors. There was a naturalness to Romeo's lines and soliloquy's that was refreshing. Nathan Krishnan made a wistful Romeo and it helped the character that the director, to his great credit, played up the humor. Mr. Krishnan aptly portrayed the character as lost and forlorn, while not creating a dark aspect that is typical to the role. His counterpart, Sarah Young's Juliet was fantastic! Portraying Juliet as a naive girl that she is, but with a growing desperation towards the end that makes logical sense for the character arc. April Fossen who played the Juliet's Nurse kept the heightened humor alive through the first half the play and the ease of which she played the part was impressive. Casting against type, J. J. Peeler's Mercutio was a joy to watch. Ms. Peeler grabbed the part with an intensity and humor and wit that not only drove the action in those scenes but helped set the pace for the scenes that followed. Daniel Beecher's Friar Lawrence is also well done. I'm not sure of Mr. Beecher's background but he's an extremely natural and talented actor and was an absolute joy to watch.

The fight choreography was well done. There were moments where my suspension waned, but when swinging around long metal sticks caution is the better part of valor. Regardless the fights were exciting and well paced, and did not slow the overall production to a halt as can be the case with fight scenes. The comedy aspect, as I mentioned before, was played up considerably in this show, which was a fantastic (and in my opinion the correct) choice by director Mark Fossen. Romeo and Juliet is funny, both the Nurse and Mercutio are comedic roles and more over the balcony scene itself is a funny scene, though so many refuse to let it be. Most productions let the balcony scene languish in the poetry of Shakespeare's language. It's beautiful language. I love it. But it sounds so much better when it's being delivered by actors that understand the meaning of the words with a punchy wit than the long drawn out speeches that takes it's typical form. They do it well here. There's a playful between both Romeo and Juliet that really make them seem in love (or at the very most like they have a massive crush on one another.)

Not everything is golden. The few criticisms I do have are mostly nitpicks and eyebrow raises. The choice to have younger kids playing Sampson, Gregory, and Abram seems  a little off to me. But then again it does ramp up the tension at the beginning, making one wonder what exactly these young bravado's are getting themselves into. There's also the nit pick of Ms. Peeler playing Mercutio's death a little bit comedic. But that's easy to overlook after such a strong, impressive performance otherwise.

I could gush all day about this play, and probably find several more things to nitpick, but I'll leave it to rest here. If any of you are in Layton, and happen to read this review before 7 p.m tonight, go see this show at the Ed  Kenley Cential Ampitheater. It closes tonight so it's your last chance.

Labels: Theater Reviews

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 2:47 PM