As if William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” wasn’t confusing enough to those who read it and struggled through it in high school, Arizona Theatre Company’s so-called “1960s interpretation,” made for an obscure take on the play that took away from its cast’s brilliant acting.
This production used the same script as the original by Shakespeare, with maybe a few tweaks, while dressing the characters in what looked like a splatter of ’60s and ’70s style clothing.
To add to the confusion, most of the set pieces looked like they were from a time closer to the Renaissance period, in which the play was originally set. So while the characters were zipping around on a Vespa and dressing in more modern clothing, they were still speaking a few centuries behind the times and walking around in what looked like a much older Verona.
This version of “Romeo and Juliet” brought up several questions. For instance, if the play is truly supposed to be set in the 1960s, why would Juliet’s parents still be trying to marry her off to Paris, a guy she barely knows, at the age of 14? Also, instead of Friar Lawrence sending a letter to let Romeo know of his plans to help Juliet fake her death, couldn’t he have just called Romeo on the phone and avoided the whole tragedy?
However, this play wasn’t all lousy. The actors did an excellent job of capturing and portraying their characters the way they were first written.
Even though Benvolio (Kathryn Tkel) was cast as a girl in this play, she was absolutely perfect for the part. Tkel was mischievous, playful, energetic and cheeky. Mercutio (Richard Baird) stole the show with his animated and lively portrayal. He was the same perverted, outspoken friend of Romeo’s who we’d seen in the original, but bigger and better in every aspect.
Nurse (Leslie Law) was a loving, good-humored, strong woman with just a dash of sharp wit. Romeo (Paul David Story) flawlessly captured his love-sick, teenage character and Juliet (Chelsea Kurts) gracefully represented her character’s giddy, innocent, passionate and intelligent personality.
At least five of the actors also did a fairly good job of playing more than one character. For example, Baird not only played Mercutio, but Friar Lawrence and Montague as well.
Unlike other productions with fight scenes and gore, the brawls and bruises in the play were not cheesy and were surprisingly believable. The fake blood wasn’t over the top and there weren’t any noticeable continuity errors when someone was injured. There were a few impressive special effects as well, like a digital set that changed images in the background.
Arizona Theatre Company’s “Romeo and Juliet” was a fairly good production, but would have been a lot better and made much more sense if they had either stuck to the original time period, or updated the script for the 1960s. But, if nothing else, it is definitely worth seeing for the great acting.
The show will be at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix until April 12 and tickets are only $10 with a student ID card.
Reach the reporter at bridget.dowd@asu.edu or follow @bridgetbernice on Twitter.
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