Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare

Bell Shakespeare

Director Peter Evans

Photo credit Brett Boardman

The Neilson Nutshell until August 27

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP

Have you ever watched an actor in a leading role in a well-known play and thought, “I’m not sure that anyone else could do better than that”?

In 1968 Neil Sedaka wrote a song called Star Crossed Lovers, about forbidden love. Johnny Preston had a hit with Running Bear. Tuptim and Lun Tha were in The King and I. Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim’s 1957 musical, West Side Story, was based on it. The stories are timeless and go back to Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde, Hero and Leander and The Butterfly Lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai from Chinese legend.

Bell Shakespeare has opened Romeo and Juliet at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.

Two teenage members of the warring families, The Montagues and The Capulets, become lovers and must keep their relationship a secret. As it was with The Hatfields and The McCoys, there’s open hostility and every possible step is taken to prevent the union.

The play has something for everyone; there’s romance, intrigue, secrecy, deceit, sadness, high drama, violence, jealousy, lust, tragedy, suicide and murder.

Of course, there are the lines that you hear in everyday chatter, “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” “That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.” “Parting is such sweet sorrow” and “A plague on both your houses!”

The 300 seat venue puts us close to the action and the cast of ten intimately connects with the audience. Some double up on roles but the change of character is apparent. Blazey Best plays Mercutio so big that she could be in the middle if the Sydney Cricket Ground and still hit the back walls, and as the Prince she pulls it back to barely more than a whisper. She does it with voice and posture.

Jacob Warner’s Romeo is understated in the first half, but increases in intensity in the second. Was it directorial, or is it the actor’s interpretation?

As Juliet’s father, James Evans is suitably and believably autocratic. Alex King is also strong as Paris. Again, it’s casting diversity that works.

Director Peter Evans uses a clever device. In the Ball scene, each character invites a member of the audience to the stage to do a simple dance with them, doubling the number of people on the stage and heightening interest from the entire audience.

Anna Tregloan’s minimalist set consists two elevated black squares of different sizes and the sets for each of the scenes are established with the use of Persian rugs. The gap between the stages symbolises the rift between the families, and there’s a sense of relief when one character crosses to the other stage. Several of the scenes are after dark, and ceiling lights are stars in the night sky, with no other stage lighting. I like to see actors’ expressions, so it was a bit frustrating. Perhaps Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne could have made some adjustments.

Apart from the quality of the productions, Bell Shakespeare has appeal for two reasons. One is that it believes in diversity in casting. Other than Othello, when did you last see a black actor in a Shakespearean play? Leinad Walker is Tybault, Juliet’s cousin and Monica Sayers, whose parents are Chinese, is Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother. Both turn in exceptional performances and it’s gratifying to see actors being cast against type and excelling in their roles. In fact, I thought that Sayers was one of the strongest three on the night.

One of the others is Lucy Bell as the Nurse who is the liaison between the young lovers. The character is conflicted, and Bell manages to project extreme emotions and strong physicality without taking it over the top. She fills the room perfectly.

Bell Shakespeare knows how to cast a leading actor. In it’s production of Hamlet, Harriet Gordon-Anderson was brilliant. She didn’t play it as female being a male; she was simply a person who was Hamlet. In Bell’s last version of the Scottish play, Jessica Tovey did much of the heavy lifting as The Lady. I thought that she carried the production.

That brings us to Rose Riley who is Juliet. Her inner strength is evident from the moment that she first enters, and her emotional range from uninhibited, boundless ecstasy to utter desperation and despair seems entirely organic. In most productions of Shakespearean plays you can see the acting; actors fall back on technical. Riley is natural. For an audience, Shakespeare’s verse and prose are sometimes a challenge to fully understand, but Riley communicates as effectively as if she’s talking in today’s vernacular.

Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the most engaging production of the play that I can recall, and Rose Riley’s performance alone is worth the price of admission.