Some classics never go out of style and some never go out of use. A black dress will always be in, but try picking up a girl with “what light through yonder window breaks” and you might cry yourself all the way home. Some classics are better left in a book, or even better, on the stage. When it comes to Romeo and Juliet, the line between a classic and a cliché can be dangerously thin.
This is why the director and T.U.T.A.’s theater company member Zaljko Djukic put forth his vision of Romeo and Juliet by concentrating on what Jan Kott calls "shots and sequences." On one level this means portraying the inner dialogue of each of the characters on stage the way you would in a movie. The character speaks and leaves, fades to the background, and so on. Interrupted by short action scenes, this method gives you a close up, an insider's view of what's really going on inside the characters' heads.
The effect is much harder to accomplish. The first half is a bit slow, and the stage empty save for the one or two characters who are either inactive or on their way out. With the flood of overhead lighting in the first scenes it can be difficult to focus on the who and what. The action seems to be in Shakespeare’s riddles and language which can sometimes get lost in a metaphor, leaving the audience behind somewhere in the back row of high school English class.
The play picks up in the second half. The simple structure of the scenery scaffolding opens up with curtains, bed, and the full cast comes to fill the stage. Although I was just mourning the death of the last act’s most charismatic character, Mercutio, played by Aaron Holland—who quite possibly could have stolen the entire show—I was finally seeing what Djukic is known for. The stage comes to life as Juliet lies sleeping in her grave, filled with echoes of the tomb, and in the stage's periphery Romeo learns of her death. As the two worlds collide, the audience is left with an unforgettable vision of the world’s most famous duo.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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