THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504040137
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The ODU production of ``Romeo and Juliet'' isn't actually Shakespeare without words, but the words have been so thoroughly de-emphasized that it comes close.
One hates to seem prey to convention, but the conventional wisdom that sees Shakespeare's verse as a crowning achievement of English drama has a long history of fairly consistent support.
Why any group would choose to stage what amounts to a modern dance version of ``Romeo and Juliet'' performed by untrained dancers is nowhere made clear by this production. The student and community performers sometimes move like terrified street mimes, to quote one remark overheard from a departing patron last Friday.
Just why some speeches have been kept and others deleted is sometimes hard to fathom. A lengthy passage about Queen Mab, which would have had far more meaning to Elizabethan audiences than it can to us today, seems endless. Any number of obscure comic exchanges that retain their interest and humor only for the most scholastic-minded viewer remain intact.
Lines that haven't been cut are often rushed through with great speed and little emotion, as if they were an obstacle delaying a performer from his next task. When emotion is injected, it usually comes from the school of shouting and wailing. More than a few times what was being said simply cannot be clearly heard.
Some lines are simply misinterpreted. ``He jests at scars that never felt a wound'' is famously difficult to render clearly, but someone should have recognized that it is the jester, not the scars, that have never known an injury.
Early in the show one gets the sense that director Will Bond has no special affection for this script. Nothing in the performance contradicts that first impression.
The intensely physical, non-verbal approach to ``Romeo and Juliet'' that Bond takes can break an actor lose from cliched interpretations of familiar lines. This may lead the actor to fresh and striking interpretations of a role, but it remains a tool, an exercise in actor training rather than an end in itself.
Whatever one may think of the philosophies behind this production, one must admire the strenuous efforts of the cast, and the intense, consistent discipline they display.
Among featured players Amy Ingram stands out for her strong voice, her focus, and her clarity. Ingram plays Juliet's nurse, who also serves the function of a narrator or chorus. There is a suggestion that the action takes place either in her memory or imagination.
Celia Burnett, as Juliet, and Josh Doyle, as Romeo, hint at the innocence and single-minded passions of youth. Rob Cui, as Mercutio and as Prince Escalus, is always interesting. Bryan Salerno, in the role of Juliet's father, has an effective scene with Burnett when he commands her to wed the man he has chosen.
The great pleasure of this production comes from the striking, albeit static, stage pictures created by Bond's actors and the stunning designs of Konrad Winters. No local stage in recent memory has offered a more beautifully lighted show, nor one so richly visual.
The balcony scene, where a grey-toned Juliet is elevated against a deep blue sky with a full moon shining behind her, is just one of a series of lovely images. by CNB