Reviewed by James Karas
Scott Wentworth directs a bold and
imaginative production of Romeo and Juliet for the Stratford Festival
that scores some successes, some questionable choices and some disagreeable
picks.
The most notable feature of this production
is Wentworth’s funereal approach. While the Chorus (Sarah Dodd) is reciting the
prologue, there are four women dressed in black on the stage holding candles.
They are Widows, roles that have been added by the director. There is a wooden
box on the stage that looks like a coffin. We will see the box/coffin, the
Widows and candles a number of times during the performance.
Antoine Yared as Romeo and Sara Farb as Juliet in Romeo and
Juliet. Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.
The costumes by Designer Christina
Poddubiuk are aggressively black enforcing the funereal atmosphere.
Antoine Yared and Sara Farb take
the title roles and subject to some comments they do fine work. Farb’s Juliet
is a self-assured and spunky girl who screams when startled and demands it when
she wants something. When she meets Romeo for the first time and he asks to
kiss her, she grants his request not by not moving as the text states. This Juliet “moves.” A well done and refreshingly vibrant
Juliet from Farb.
Yared is a fine-looking Romeo and
he carries the role mostly well. But there are times when he rushes through his
lines. The first exchange with Juliet is a beautiful sonnet and it deserves to
be recited as such. Yared does not. When he finds Juliet “dead” in the crypt, in
his deep grief he asks if Death has kept her beautiful because he wants her for
his paramour. He should be looking intensely at Juliet and saying those lines with
passionate grief. In emotionally charged scenes he needed to enunciate,
modulate his voice and slow down a bit.
Seana McKenna plays the garrulous
Nurse who has many lines and some raunchy humour. McKenna got the best of the
character through judicious modulation of her voice and plain fine acting even
in some of her long speeches that are frequently shortened but were not in this
production.
Members of the company in Romeo and Juliet. Photography by
Cylla von Tiedemann.
The rest of the cast was generally
very good. Noteworthy are Evan Buliung as Mercutio, Zlatomir Moldovanski as
Tybalt and Randy Hughson as Capulet.
Some of Wentworth’s approaches to
scenes are worthy of comment. Romeo and Juliet spend a night together and he
must leave in the morning but they have a lovers’ talk as to the time of day. Wentworth
has them spend the night on the open stage with almost no suggestion that they
consummated their marriage and then some. That robs the play of much substance
for people who had to guess as to what happened.
When we first meet Friar Laurence
in his cell he has a soliloquy before Romeo enters and he is alone in the text.
Wentworth has the widows holding candles on the stage. Interesting but I am not
sure if this added anything to the production. When Friar Laurence expresses
his shock at Romeo’s request that he marry him and Juliet that day by invoking
“Holy Francis” he gets a well-deserved laugh for the way he delivers the words.
From left: Marion Adler as Lady Capulet, Sara Farb as Juliet
and Seana McKenna as Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Photography by Cylla von
Tiedemann.
Before Juliet takes the potion that
the Friar gave her, she is walked to her bed by the Widows. When Romeo is in
the Capulets’ vault, the dead Tybalt walks to the casket and lies on it with a
swath of blood visible on his stomach. Very dramatic.
The casket, the walking dead, the
Widows, the dark funeral atmosphere are all interesting directorial additions
but I found some of them only partially successful. There are a number of deaths
in Romeo
and Juliet but that is not the focus of the play. The play is about the
star-crossed lovers but bringing the long-term deadly effects of the feud
between the two families and the consequent creation of widows may be
defensible. Subject to these points, it is an impressive production even if you
disagree with its point of view.
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Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare opened on June 1 and
will run until October 21, 2017 at the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen Street, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
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