See it for the balcony scene.
Elm Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet” has some obvious and fairly understandable problems — a cast of wildly differing talents, design concepts that don’t quite connect and a bizarre desire to add as much comedy as possible to this immortal romantic tragedy.
The production exists at those crossroads where all free outdoor summer Shakespeare shows dwell. There is a sense of passion and professionalism — eight members of the cast are in the Actors Equity union, and many have worked with renowned regional Shakespeare companies. But this is balanced with the need to provide opportunities for less experienced performers (including six members of the troupe’s Elm Scholar Intern Company). By necessity, the show must be grand and broad, with microphones and bright lights and a sprawling multi-story set, so as to command attention on a vast lawn at nighttime. Intimacy is lost.
The show is awash in experimentation, interpretation and creativity, but these elements are tempered by the knowledge that a good portion of the audience either hasn’t seen a lot of Shakespeare, is expecting something “mainstream” or “classical,” or just isn’t in the mood to be challenged. That diverse audience, carefully nurtured for over two decades at annual shows in the glorious Edgerton Park on the New Haven/Hamden line, can number in the tens of thousands spread out over 16 performances.
“Romeo and Juliet” is directed by Raphael Massie, who as an actor has been in Elm Shakespeare shows for 14 of its 22 seasons, and also played the small role of Peter in Darko Tresnjak’s “Romeo and Juliet” at Hartford Stage last year and has directed at Shakespeare & Co. in the Berkshires. Romeo is played by Steven Lee Johnson and Juliet by Courtney Jamison. Massie knows how to fill the stage, and he tries to make every character stand out and finds opportunities for fresh perspectives by casting women in the traditionally male roles of Escalus and Tybalt.
But we know who’s show this really is, and they share a remarkable balcony scene.
They look young enough to be teenagers and don’t look out of place when surrounded by real teens in the show’s dancing and fighting scenes. Both Johnson and Jamison (as well as this production’s Mercutio, James Udon) have just completed their second year as students in the acting program at the Yale School of Drama, which means they’ve just spent a year studying, questioning, deconstructing and performing Elizabethan verse drama.
What they and director Massie do with the balcony scene is bracing. Instead of cooing each line as it was a love poem, they talk like real people. Juliet wonders where Romeo is. He shouts and preens. They declare their affection boldly, without saccharine.
The love part is taken for granted. These two are not trying to woo or impress each other. They have already kissed, back at the party in the Capulet house where they met. (That classy social gathering is staged here as a booty-shaking house party.) They don’t whisper, and they aren’t coy.
The banter is similar when Romeo and Juliet consummate their marriage and argue about whether it’s a lark or a nightingale that has woken them up. They don’t swoon and sway all misty-eyed. They sound like a couple who have instantly bonded, are made for each other, and are having a real conversation.
Other attempts to part the clouds of perfumed passion that often engulf productions of “Romeo and Juliet” aren’t quite as successful. The fight scenes are played so comically that there’s no real menace. Any line that is even the slightest bit suggestive is accompanied by a crotch-grabbing gesture or a lascivious look.
A 1970s-style soul/R&B score works nicely for most of the play, but seems out of place for the death scenes. The recorded score of pop hits often morphs into live performances by a guitar/vocal duo, which can be jarring rather than humanizing. And the modernistic touches in the dialogue and music aren’t reflected in the set or costume designs.
But this is a “Romeo and Juliet” with attitude. On an unexpectedly thundery Tuesday night, the gusts of wind underscored the brash, breezy love-speak of the play’s embattled couple. The line “What storm is this that blows so contrary?” never sounded better.
ROMEO AND JULIET runs outdoors in Edgerton Park, 75 Cliff St., New Haven, through Sept. 3. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday at 8 p.m. Pre-show “Tree talks” group discussions are held Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, though donations are requested. 203-954-7408, elmshakespeare.org
