Modern Day (Kind of) Shakespeare

Knowing only that the play was supposed to be a modern re-interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, I spent most of the first act confused. As far as I could tell, not a word of dialogue was changed from the original Shakespeare, but the set and the costumes put me in the present day. “Where are we?” kept running through my head. “Is it 1597? Or 2007?” The “swordfights” were still referred to as swordfights — and as the weapons were usually imaginary I couldn’t decide if they were supposed to be actual swords (very 1597) or guns (more 2007). The tension between the antique dialogue and the modern aesthetics was put in the foreground throughout the entire play, and I was too often distracted by my confusion over the time period.

The saving grace of the first act was, for me, the Nurse (played by one of four adults borrowed from the Actor’s Equity Association). She was one of the few characters who spoke occasionally in modern dialogue, though with still a hint of Shakespeare. The Nurse was portrayed fantastically by Sonja Lanzener. Much of the comic relief came from the Nurse, who was played as flighty, excitable, incessantly chatty, but caring. Her presence on stage lightened the entire atmosphere, and allowed the audience to concentrate on enjoying the play, rather than what was confusing about it. Much of the bawdy humor of the first act began with her, and caused a lot of laughter in the audience. I actually thought it was quite clever to include some raunchy subtleties in the play, because if you’ve read much Shakespeare, you know that it’s in there.

During intermission I looked over my program notes, and got a sense of what this play was supposed to be saying. The description declared that it was a modern re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet, set in the present day (who knew?). The intention was to examine urban tensions that exist in today’s America by portraying Verona as a center of urban poverty / street culture that is becoming gentrified. I didn’t get this from the first act. Yes, the Capulets were in suits, and the Montagues in jeans, but with nothing else to signal this poverty-turned-gentry idea, I thought the costumes were simply something to underline the differences between the two families. With hardly any dialogue changed, the complex contemporary message was lost in translation.

Again, in the second act, I was confused, even knowing what the intended message was. I just couldn’t reconcile the exact Shakespearan text with the modern set. The play in my opinion would have been more powerful, if more had been changed, or less, if it had been completely true to Shakespeare’s time, or if it had taken greater liberties in creating a contemporary atmosphere. It did not go far enough in trying to re-think Romeo and Juliet, and so lost some of the spellbinding majesty and power of the play.

The second act too though, had a saving grace: the performances of Bridget Saracino ’11 and Ian Harkins ‘11, as Juliet and Romeo, respectively. Nearly all the actors did a wonderful job (special props to Mercutio), but these two went above and beyond. It was an exquisite casting job. Only rarely (and I am totally serious) have I seen anguish portrayed as well as it was by Saracino as Juliet, an exceptionally overwhelming emotion which she kept up convincingly for a significant portion of the second act. Harkins and Saracino worked excellently together, and in my humble opinion, successfully conveyed both the wonder and love, and then despair, of the young lovers.

I did not quite cry at the end of the play, but my eyes were admittedly a little damp, which I attribute in large part to the absolutely convincing performances of Romeo and Juliet, especially considering that the juxtaposition of new and old kept jerking me out of the scenes, and back into a crowded theater where I was forced to remember that what I was watching was not real. Unfortunately it is hard to make a successful play out of something that does not constantly and continuously force the audience to feel they are part of the setting, but the performers in this Romeo and Juliet gave it a heartfelt and spirited try.