Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s most produced plays, springs to life in EclecticPond’s latest offering at the Irvington Lodge. The R&J story is well known — two families hate each other, boy Montague meets girl Capulet, mutual infatuation ensues, friends fight, boy and girl marry in secret, boy kills girl’s cousin, girl’s parents force her to marry someone else but she pretends to kill herself before wedding, boy goes to crypt thinking she’s really dead so he kills himself, girl wakes up to find him dead so she kills herself.
Director Tom Cardwell, Assistant Director Catherine Cardwell, and actress Maria Souza adapted Shakespeare’s text, judiciously editing it to run at about an hour and a half. The play will also be presented in a one hour format at schools in the area, so some further pruning of the text will be needed. On opening night, there was a question-and-answer session with the actors and directors as an educational component to the production, and pre-show activities.
There are actually two casts for R&J, with actors performing several parts on different nights.Every performance will have a different mix of casts, so every performance will be unique. On opening night, Romeo was played by David Marlowe, and Juliet was played by Maria Souza. Both gave nuanced performances in the title roles, conveying the innocence of teenagers wrestling with growing up. Christa Shoot Grimmer, was outstanding in her turn as the bawdy, motherly Nurse. Lisa K. Anderson as Friar Laurence and Montague, Kate Homan as Benvolio, Matt Anderson as Paris, Meagan Matlock as both Tybalt and Lady Capulet, and Noah Winston as Capulet rounded out the production with crisp and high-energy performances.
A three platform set with newspaper “graffiti” and two aluminum stepladders, and a down-stage with bed that doubled as the crypt at the end, made sense for this abbreviated and modern R&J. In this modern telling of the tale, costumes were today’s casual, including the party scene where superhero t-shirts and masks ruled.
EclecticPond’s mission to provide innovative productions of Shakespeare’s work took another big step forward with R&J. In December, they’ll be bringing back 10 x 10 (10 of Shakespeare’s plays, 10 minutes each), and then celebrate Will’s 450th birthday with performances of a Comedy of Errors (February/March), the Young Shakespeare Project (April), and then the ambitious War of the Roses in Summer 2014.
R & J plays through September 29 at 7:30 p.m. most days. Tickets are $12 for adults (with a special half-price offer to see it again with a different cast). Tickets are available online at eclecticpond.org or at the door at the Irvngton Lodge, 5515 E. Washington St.
