Romeo and Juliet: sweeping romance and ominous drums
21 Jun 2024 - Photos by David Hou

This is the lucky thirteenth production of Romeo and Juliet to trod the boards at Stratford. While it is not the festival's most produced of Shakespeare's plays—that honour goes to A Midsummer Night's Dream—it is probably the Shakespeare text that audiences are most likely to have already seen. Or seen homages or parodies of. Romeo and Juliet is part of the cultural lexicon. Director Sam White shrewdly decided, for the most part, against gimmicks and decided to dive deeply into the text, the romance and the violence that make Romeo and Juliet an epic tragedy. This production begins with ominous pounding drums (Graham Hargrove and Jasmine Jones-Ball) that are then transformed as the prologue is sung as an aria. The effect is magical, transporting us out of contemporary reality and depositing us in a Verona close to the time period in which Shakespeare set it. 

When the drums next appear it is at the Capulet's party at which Juliet, Vanessa Sears (Queen Goneril, King Lear, Is God Is, Alice in Wonderland, Caroline, Or Change, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz), is coaxed to sing another aria. Glorious and organic. The naturalism extends to the set which is glowing aged wood with a sprinkling of stars above. Minimal decorations and props set the scenes. This is lavish minimalist Shakespeare with the women in gowns and the men in tights. Already this production has an eye candy advantage, men in tights means butts and bulges, an efficient way to ignite an old-fashioned sweeping romance. The romance, and tragedy, is given gravitas by a simple decision. The young lovers are played as the barely pubescent teenagers that the text describes. They are impetuous and innocently passionate. Of course their love at first sight will endure forever, how could this overwhelming emotion be otherwise?

The age appropriateness also heightens the tragedy. Mercutio, a strutting and sexy Andrew Iles, Benvolio, a more cautious and serious Steven Hao (A Midsummer's Night Dream, Cockroach) are boys playing at being men. When their swordplay actually cuts flesh, it surprises them. The blood feud between the Capulets and the Montagues is a schoolyard game of king of the castle to them. So when they are up against Emilio Vieira (Richard II, Grand Magic, Towards Youth) as an enraged Tybalt, the inevitable occurs. Iles spits out his lines like a child summoning bravado, while Hao is a child seeking approval. Jonathan Mason is a suitably handsome Romeo, all curls and codpiece, and the words flow rhythmically as he discovers a presumed emotional depth. But it is Sears that creates magic out of Shakespeare's poetry. The impulse in performing Shakespeare is often described as research, dredging the text for clues and meaning amongst the sometimes arcane flourishes. Sears has obviously done the work but takes another approach. Renowned for her work in musicals, Sears takes the idea of an aria seriously, and metaphorically sings the prose. The results are stunning. In the same way that a lyric and melody when sung become more than the words, Sears takes the prose that often confounds and renders it intuitively logical. We feel what she says. She is giddy as only a 13-year-old can be, but she is wise beyond her years. A little girl with a big voice.

Sadly, romance, even first love, cannot exist in a bubble. Though Friar Lawrence, a comically bumbling Scott Wentworth (Wormwood), and Nurse, a ribald and hilarious Glynis Ranney (Falsettos) do their best, we all know how the story ends. Graham Abbey (Snow White) turns his matinee idol looks into something quite sinister as Capulet. He dances dashingly with his daughter and wife at the ball, but when his scheme to marry his daughter off goes awry, he turns vicious and his interactions with Juliet become harrowing. Jessica B Hill (Mother's Daughter) as Lady Capulet tries to counsel and comfort her daughter, but her internal struggle with the basic hopelessness of being a woman turns her cold and despairing. We understand Juliet's need to escape into a romantic fantasy. Fortunately, she does have the wisdom, and requisite ethereal beauty, to take charge during their marriage's consummation. 'For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo" strains to be operatic, but the ending of the blood feud, mended by Juliet's literal blood, gives the evening a moral, a fairy tale ending. A whisper instead of sturm und drang. Cue the ominous drums.