The Montagues and the Capulets exchanged blows before a packed house last Friday at a midnight performance of the Princeton Shakespeare Company’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which opened in the Class of 1970 Theatre in Whitman College and runs through this Saturday.
The audience went wild in the opening fight as actors threw punches and chased each other through rows of seats. Using every inch of the tiny theater space, director Julia Keimach ’12 stages a highly kinetic production that stirred up an already rambunctious crowd on Friday. The consistent and irksome audience commentary was reminiscent of what may have occurred at Shakespeare’s Globe, where the groundlings — through hissing, cheering and calling out to actors — freely and loudly assessed the play.
In her director’s note, Keimach writes that she uses tarot cards to “frame” the production and to explore themes of fate and chance. She has Patrick Morton ’13 embody “Fate” as a character onstage. He unexpectedly appears and looms in the background of key moments, menacingly shuffling cards and throwing one to the floor in climactic, deciding moments.
It would have been fascinating to see Keimach push her vision even further, not merely framing the production with Fate but fully integrating him into her storytelling. The difficulty in directing an oft-staged masterpiece is finding and asserting your own voice, and Keimach stops just short of refreshing originality.
In only two of his sporadic appearances does Fate physically interact with the onstage events and to rather powerful ends. Before Juliet drinks the sleeping potion, she cries out thinking she sees the ghost of Tybalt, but Morton is standing before her with a knowing, ominous look in his eye and the cards in his hands. Fate is again effectively used in the Capulet’s tomb when Friar Lawrence, urging Juliet to escape with him, hears a noise and runs off. To scare the Friar away, Keimach has Morton repeatedly slam his foot on the ground with escalating volume and power.
In these two cases, Morton’s performance as Fate makes physical the ambiguous references in the script, a decision that is both intuitive and compelling. In other moments, when Morton merely appears without directly contributing to the action, he leaves no impact and his existence becomes confusing, arbitrary and unnecessary. Committing to full integration of the Fate character could have led to a promising reimagination of this tale.
Keimach fully succeeds in assembling a fine ensemble of enthusiastic players. While the production drags at times (the midnight show, after a somewhat late start, did not end until almost 3 a.m.), the players are committed to having fun onstage, which helps maintain the audience’s attention.
Katie McGunagle ’14 plays Juliet, bringing her to a raw and searing finale with an emotional undoing that is both clear and satisfying. With his tousled mop of curls, J.T. Glaze ’13 uses skillful comedic timing and physicality to transform a clownish Romeo into a tragic leading man.
The skillful actors continued to please as the audience roared with laughter and approval for Camila Vega ’12 as Juliet’s bawdy nurse. Despite her tendency to overplay sexual innuendo to the point of exasperation, Vega has vocal and physical variety that energizes the stage.
Likewise, Adam Stasiw ’13 delights as Mercutio. This long and lean smooth operator speaks with refreshing ease — not pushing and exhausting the language like some of his castmates.
Kudos to Joseph LaBatt ’14, who plays Lord Capulet; when he vehemently berates a whimpering McGunagle for her disobedience, an unexpected (and frankly, welcome) silence fell over the raucous audience.
Despite its slow pacing and under-realized exploration of Fate, this PSC production ultimately showcases capable and clever direction of a fine cast.
Pros: Compelling (if underdeveloped) directing concept, fine ensemble.
Cons: Slow-moving
4 Paws
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