On June 11, Bard on the Beach began its 27th season with a rendition of Romeo and Juliet; a hilarious and powerful — but also flawed — performance that was, nevertheless, a strong beginning to an exciting series.
For those unfamiliar with it, the venue for Bard on the Beach is a large, arching tent with seats looking down not only on the stage, but also beyond it to the park, bay and mountains in the background. This is thanks to a large opening in the back which makes for the backdrop and becomes an integral part of the performance’s setting.
The stage decoration was simple, with a set that comprised of two large, gloomy concrete blocks that towered up with the decided harshness of brutalism. Over the course of the play they were shifted and put together like two massive, austere LEGO bricks, forming the various rooms of the Capulets and Montagues in an impressively effective way. It lent to a feeling of sparseness and cold cruelty that made for an effective contrast to the passionate words of its characters.
Unfortunately the costumes did not entirely match the sets for quality. The style was somewhere vaguely between a traditional style and a more interpretive, modern one. Sometimes this worked, but the idea was not consistently realized and oftentimes ended up being more confusing that intriguing. There did not seem to be a uniform logic to things. Moments where, for example, Juliet's mother and wet nurse were wearing ornate, traditional robes and Juliet was sporting hot-pink pyjamas, just did not feel right.
The same held true to the prop use. A priest using headphones to listen to rock music and parties carrying a vibe akin to a nightclub made for amusing gags, but like the costumes, these modern elements were not consistently used and were all but abandoned in the second act. The result was ultimately that these modern elements, with the exception of the set, became mostly gimmicky, as they had little actual impact on the plot itself.
The finest exception was that of Mercutio, who was wonderfully realized by actor Andrew McNee. He played the notoriously bombastic character with no level of self-restraint, launching him into the modern age with a frat-boy demeanour and a good amount of homoerotic interplay with his fellows. He played the part in a contemporary fashion, using this to derive some new jokes and wordplay without adulterating the source material. The effect was hilarious, which (400 year-old spoiler alert) made his death all the sadder.
Mercutio’s death marked the ending of any levity in the play, and with it, the problem of Romeo came into the forefront. Romeo and Juliet are characters who can either sicken or capture audiences, and that depends entirely on the actors portraying them. The actress playing Juliet was very engaging, and gave a somewhat one-dimensional character a great deal of life. Romeo, however, did not do the same. The character is generally overly romantic and a bit of a fool. These traits should be endearing rather than irritating and passionate instead of exasperating. Andrew Chown's performance was not quite that bad, but his Romeo was not endearing or relatable and this ultimately worked to his detriment.
A surprising performance was by Scott Bellis as Friar Lawrence, who leant a new complexity to his character's motivations and surprising depth to his scenes, offering novel insight throughout his performance.
The final criticism is that there was a surprising lack of diversity in the casting of the production. For a play willing to make alterations to the traditional style and setting for the sake of being more relevant to its audience, it was seemingly forgotten that a modern audience is a diverse one. On stage the talent was almost entirely caucasian, with the exception of one or two actors who received only bit parts, with little more than a line of dialogue between them. Though it had no effect on the performance, this was still somewhat disappointing.
That being said, this was still an enjoyable play, which succeeded in its aim to make Shakespeare modern, relevant, even if some flaws made it slightly underwhelming.
Romeo and Juliet will be showing at Bard on the Beach through till September 23. Tickets are available online at bardonthebeach.org