Romeo and Juliet (review)

The fall production at Georgia Shakespeare occurs after a break of more than a month and a half following the end of the summer repertory season. Since it is the only time during their season when schools are in session, it is usually drawn from the typical high school Shakespeare curriculum. In spite of a predictable slate from which to choose, Georgia Shakespeare consistently breathes new life into these oft-performed plays, such as in the gender role-reversal production of The Tempest in 2003. While this production of Romeo and Juliet stayed true to most of the classic conventions, its atypical casting and its focus on time gave it a fresh energy.

Although a recent college graduate of DePaul University, Woodard was immediately believable as a girl in her early to mid teens. Rather than falling prey to the trap of "acting" like a teenager, Woodard performed Juliet vivaciously, with an unselfconscious grace, always living in and for the moment. The chemistry between Benvolio, Romeo, and Mercutio was immediately believable as that of three high school buddies—in part because the three actors worked during their teens as part of Freddie Hendrick's Youth Ensemble of Atlanta. Their antics, including stealing liquor from the party at the Capulets', rang true. Like Woodard's Juliet, their behavior was believably teenaged, without resorting to stereotypical tropes. There were, however, points when Romeo's petulant sulking and awkward courting seemed forced and stagey, never quite shaking off the melodramatic lovesick daze in which he begins the play. His performance seemed at times more like an adult pretending to be a teenager, a sharp contrast with the portrayals of the other young characters.

Foremost in both the direction and the design of this production was a heightened awareness of time. The set suggested the pieces of broken clock works, with gears serving as seats and tables variously throughout the production. (This was less apparent to the seats in the front half of the house, where an edge-on perspective did not fully show the shape of many elements of the set.) One unique element of the design, however, was the presence of a pool of water in the middle of the stage. Although this cut down considerably on the playing area available to the actors, it gave a literal representation to the symbolic gulf between the two families, crossed only in the play's final scene when Juliet's bier was placed in the center of the pool. Around the edge of this pool were scattered a number of short pillars of varying heights, which served as stepping stones for Romeo as he approached Juliet's balcony, and seats for characters throughout the play. This too echoed the theme of time being unpredictable and out of balance—a theme also explored in Garner's production of The Winter's Tale in 2001, which likewise featured a rounded playing area surrounded by twelve irregular pillars.

Death came quickly to characters in this production. Audiences have come to expect outstanding fight choreography from Georgia Shakespeare, following recent productions of Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac in which the fighting styles of the characters so effectively evoked their individual personalities. In a play with fighting so central to the story, it was surprising that nearly every fight was over in a few seconds, with even the climactic fight between Mercutio and Tybalt taking little more. However, knowing the company's previous work, it was clear that this was not the result of sloppy...