Actors Theatre of Louisville opens its 49th season with a high-adrenaline modern production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet directed by Tony Speciale.
Reviewed by Brian Walker
Let me start by saying I haven’t been this turned on by a production in a long time. Not like weird-sexually turned on but more excited, electrified, engaged: so charged I might have even run to the roof of the parking garage after the show to scream YES! I love theatre!
I’ve probably seen twenty productions of Romeo and Juliet over the years. It has always been my favorite Shakespeare play but the easiest to screw up and turn into a pool of cliché. It’s the most accessible of his scripts, has the most mass market appeal and has some of the most quotable lines of any play from any time period. I’ve seen bad to okay to good to great productions of Romeo and Juliet but easily, no question, the current production at Actors Theatre is the most inspired I’ve ever seen.
I loved at least 83 things about the production but at the risk of sounding like a gusher I’ve decided to focus on five (in no particular order):
2. There’s an in-ground pool onstage! It’s used brilliantly throughout the first act to give brand new spins and interpretations to scenes I’ve seen done the same old way tons of times. Daniel Zimmerman’s set in general is, in my opinion, a stroke of genius which created such a sense of place/time/etc. and was utilized so cleverly by Mr. Speciale. It’s a very sort of modern Frank Lloyd Wright house seen from the back,with sliding glass doors which lead into The Capulets’ home. There’s a set of stairs which of course lead up to a balcony (I hate it when productions try and be different and don’t put Juliet in a balcony!) and that’s it. Very simple and clean but very effective.
3. Tony Speciale’s vision and interpretation of this work is so evocative and original without being pretentious, exciting and shocking without being base or appealing to the lowest common denominator. It’s very Real Housewives of Verona and so easily accessible; we all know these people, we are these people. In his Romeo and Juliet: Lady Montague is a single mother. Juliet is very unconventional: she has a boy-short haircut and runs around in jeans but is still feminine and striking. We have an ensemble of Montagues and Capulets where all races and sexual orientations are represented and presented evenly. Speciale also succeeded in creating some beautiful pictures on stage scene after scene after scene in his original and creative staging. It’s about the easiest thing all night to see why the man was nominated for a Drama Desk award for outstanding director in 2012. I hope this is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship between the theatre and Mr. Speciale directing there.
4. I pretty much fell in love with Mercutio, played by Nate Miller, as soon as he was three lines into his first scene with Romeo. He had me every moment he was onstage, he completely and totally committed and made the dialogue seem as if it were written now and not 500 years ago. He actually made me cry (spoiler alert!) when he died. I cried! I’ve seen this show how many times and it didn’t matter; it’s a fantastically written character and if played by a fantastically talented actor it’s theatre magic, and that’s what they got there.
5. The balcony scene is exquisite. Elvy Yost as Juliet and Grantham Coleman as Romeo had fantastic chemistry and succeeded in conquering the thick language by keeping it accessible and modern. It felt really honest and they looked really hot and really, what else do you need in actors playing the most famous pair of lovers in the world? They were both excellent in their scenes together and absolutely slayed their monologues while they were apart.
The entire cast is great. Not a weak link in the lot. And the inclusion of the pool inspired less clothing throughout, which was just fine with me. It was so easy to get lost in this world and the story with such an able and willing ensemble, and it was so much fun to sort of discover this play that I love so much for the first time through this wonderful prism of performers.
That’s when you know you’re watching a great production of Romeo and Juliet -- when you’re not sitting there comparing it to the last good production you saw or the movies or whatever. Like a great novel you can read over and over and always be affected by it no matter what, no matter how many times you've seen it, a great production of Romeo and Juliet takes you on the journey that Shakespeare intended for his audience to take when he wrote the thing, which is heartbreaking and brilliant and chaotic and dirty and so attuned to human nature, especially pertaining to love and emotions, heartbreak and passion.
What I didn’t like about the production: the fact that I’m struggling to find something to be critical about. But if that's my worst problem today I guess I'm doing pretty good. It was just a really, really wonderful night of theatre and I loved it. That’s all there is to it.
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Tony Speciale (a former Acting Apprentice at Actors Theatre (1998-1999) and current Associate Artistic Director at Classic Stage Company)
Presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville
316 W Main Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
502-584-1205
info@actorstheatre.org
http://www.actorstheatre.org
September 4 – September 26, 2012
 |
| Grantham Coleman as Romeo and Elvy Yost as Juliet, Photo by Alan Simons |
Reviewed by Brian Walker
Let me start by saying I haven’t been this turned on by a production in a long time. Not like weird-sexually turned on but more excited, electrified, engaged: so charged I might have even run to the roof of the parking garage after the show to scream YES! I love theatre!
I’ve probably seen twenty productions of Romeo and Juliet over the years. It has always been my favorite Shakespeare play but the easiest to screw up and turn into a pool of cliché. It’s the most accessible of his scripts, has the most mass market appeal and has some of the most quotable lines of any play from any time period. I’ve seen bad to okay to good to great productions of Romeo and Juliet but easily, no question, the current production at Actors Theatre is the most inspired I’ve ever seen.
I loved at least 83 things about the production but at the risk of sounding like a gusher I’ve decided to focus on five (in no particular order):
1. Curtain speech. So as the audience enters the theatre before the show starts we’re immediately immersed in the world with actors present onstage silently living in their lives: two women sitting by the pool and two men seen inside play video games on a large screen TV. When it’s time for the show to start without much warning the women begin to speak to us. What is consistently turned into an arbitrary call to turn off cell phones was turned into a delightful and hilarious two minute scene which not only succeeded in the aforementioned, but also served as the perfect amuse-bouche for what was to come. And then we get to meet Les Waters for the first time. What is consistently turned into an arbitrary plea for money and support was turned into a moment of inspiration, community and love for theatre that gave me such a wonderful feeling of appreciation and excitement for Mr. Waters’s addition to the Actors Theatre staff.
 |
| Elvy Yost as Juliet and Grantham Coleman as Romeo Photo by Alan Simons |
3. Tony Speciale’s vision and interpretation of this work is so evocative and original without being pretentious, exciting and shocking without being base or appealing to the lowest common denominator. It’s very Real Housewives of Verona and so easily accessible; we all know these people, we are these people. In his Romeo and Juliet: Lady Montague is a single mother. Juliet is very unconventional: she has a boy-short haircut and runs around in jeans but is still feminine and striking. We have an ensemble of Montagues and Capulets where all races and sexual orientations are represented and presented evenly. Speciale also succeeded in creating some beautiful pictures on stage scene after scene after scene in his original and creative staging. It’s about the easiest thing all night to see why the man was nominated for a Drama Desk award for outstanding director in 2012. I hope this is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship between the theatre and Mr. Speciale directing there.
4. I pretty much fell in love with Mercutio, played by Nate Miller, as soon as he was three lines into his first scene with Romeo. He had me every moment he was onstage, he completely and totally committed and made the dialogue seem as if it were written now and not 500 years ago. He actually made me cry (spoiler alert!) when he died. I cried! I’ve seen this show how many times and it didn’t matter; it’s a fantastically written character and if played by a fantastically talented actor it’s theatre magic, and that’s what they got there.
5. The balcony scene is exquisite. Elvy Yost as Juliet and Grantham Coleman as Romeo had fantastic chemistry and succeeded in conquering the thick language by keeping it accessible and modern. It felt really honest and they looked really hot and really, what else do you need in actors playing the most famous pair of lovers in the world? They were both excellent in their scenes together and absolutely slayed their monologues while they were apart.
The entire cast is great. Not a weak link in the lot. And the inclusion of the pool inspired less clothing throughout, which was just fine with me. It was so easy to get lost in this world and the story with such an able and willing ensemble, and it was so much fun to sort of discover this play that I love so much for the first time through this wonderful prism of performers.
That’s when you know you’re watching a great production of Romeo and Juliet -- when you’re not sitting there comparing it to the last good production you saw or the movies or whatever. Like a great novel you can read over and over and always be affected by it no matter what, no matter how many times you've seen it, a great production of Romeo and Juliet takes you on the journey that Shakespeare intended for his audience to take when he wrote the thing, which is heartbreaking and brilliant and chaotic and dirty and so attuned to human nature, especially pertaining to love and emotions, heartbreak and passion.
What I didn’t like about the production: the fact that I’m struggling to find something to be critical about. But if that's my worst problem today I guess I'm doing pretty good. It was just a really, really wonderful night of theatre and I loved it. That’s all there is to it.
 |
| Grantham Coleman as Romeo and Jordan Dean as Tybalt Photo by Alan Simons |
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Tony Speciale (a former Acting Apprentice at Actors Theatre (1998-1999) and current Associate Artistic Director at Classic Stage Company)
Presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville
316 W Main Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
502-584-1205
info@actorstheatre.org
http://www.actorstheatre.org
September 4 – September 26, 2012
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