![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Instead of vaguely mentioning it next week.
The season has begun - my first show (of the three subscriptions I'm carrying - good god, why do they all want my money?) was tonight. Romeo and Juliet, which I ordinarily don't particularly like, but David Muse directing an all-male cast with Aubrey Deeker as Mercutio and it only cost me $20 for pretty good seats? We like :)
Tudor dress, all male company, Lady Montague and Lady Capulet double as the Apothecary and a male servant, respectively. Entire company acts as chorus. Muse plays up all the comedy possible, particularly in Romeo and Juliet's interactions, which makes the first half go so much better than usual. Unfortunately, there's less that can be done that way in the second half, which is when everyone kills themselves tediously.
What was really interesting, though, was the connection with Hamlet. Not something one would think to put together, but Finn Wittrock's Romeo has all the mannerisms and vocal inflections of Jeffrey Carlson's Hamlet, and that certainly puts Ophelia and Juliet in the same camp to, I thought, good effect (assuming one made the connections, that is, particularly with a strong dose of Geoffrey Tennant, who Wittrock reminded me of when he wasn't channeling Carlson). The idea of two young men who have been not acting in a world that demands acting, but here we have the tragedy of action while with Hamlet we really have the tragedy of inaction. Youth not fitting into the world of the fathers, and the sane insider who suffers is a young woman (and Benvolio and Horatio have an obvious parallel, then). Not something one would ordinarily think of, and I'm not entirely certain how much was intentional, but Wittrock really is a dark-haired Carlson.
James Davis is freaking adorable as Juliet. The depth of his voice initially grated on me, but once Juliet actually gets to speak at length, it becomes natural. He's an active Juliet, certainly - pacing, bouncing, really good at giving dirty looks.
Aubrey's Mercutio is hot, quite probably high, and quite probably gay. In a Verona obsessed with manhood. Extremely physical - he's swinging on and doing pull-ups on the set - but manic, dangerous, and seems sex-obsessed but in a veiled way, if that makes any sense.
The balcony scene is totally played for comedy - and Romeo is so whipped.
But it's still R&J, and I don't particularly like R&J. Because the storytelling screws up at the end, I think. Why isn't there a line about why Juliet doesn't come clean about her marriage? If the Nurse were really on her side, she'd help her get away to Mantua rather than encourage her to marry Paris. Why does no one bring up bigamy? Were they not actually legally wed without her father's permission? If there's an abbey, isn't there probably also a convent nearby where Juliet could take refuge? I feel like I'm missing something that could explain why we have to go into death potions and angst instead of something logical. Hell, we at least got pirates in Hamlet to explain what he was doing over a passage of time. Maybe it's not logic I need, maybe it's that there's been so much action done by our protagonists here, much initiated by Juliet, that for her to accept a crappy plan when logic says aren't there any other options feels false.
That first act was so much fun, though.
The season has begun - my first show (of the three subscriptions I'm carrying - good god, why do they all want my money?) was tonight. Romeo and Juliet, which I ordinarily don't particularly like, but David Muse directing an all-male cast with Aubrey Deeker as Mercutio and it only cost me $20 for pretty good seats? We like :)
Tudor dress, all male company, Lady Montague and Lady Capulet double as the Apothecary and a male servant, respectively. Entire company acts as chorus. Muse plays up all the comedy possible, particularly in Romeo and Juliet's interactions, which makes the first half go so much better than usual. Unfortunately, there's less that can be done that way in the second half, which is when everyone kills themselves tediously.
What was really interesting, though, was the connection with Hamlet. Not something one would think to put together, but Finn Wittrock's Romeo has all the mannerisms and vocal inflections of Jeffrey Carlson's Hamlet, and that certainly puts Ophelia and Juliet in the same camp to, I thought, good effect (assuming one made the connections, that is, particularly with a strong dose of Geoffrey Tennant, who Wittrock reminded me of when he wasn't channeling Carlson). The idea of two young men who have been not acting in a world that demands acting, but here we have the tragedy of action while with Hamlet we really have the tragedy of inaction. Youth not fitting into the world of the fathers, and the sane insider who suffers is a young woman (and Benvolio and Horatio have an obvious parallel, then). Not something one would ordinarily think of, and I'm not entirely certain how much was intentional, but Wittrock really is a dark-haired Carlson.
James Davis is freaking adorable as Juliet. The depth of his voice initially grated on me, but once Juliet actually gets to speak at length, it becomes natural. He's an active Juliet, certainly - pacing, bouncing, really good at giving dirty looks.
Aubrey's Mercutio is hot, quite probably high, and quite probably gay. In a Verona obsessed with manhood. Extremely physical - he's swinging on and doing pull-ups on the set - but manic, dangerous, and seems sex-obsessed but in a veiled way, if that makes any sense.
The balcony scene is totally played for comedy - and Romeo is so whipped.
But it's still R&J, and I don't particularly like R&J. Because the storytelling screws up at the end, I think. Why isn't there a line about why Juliet doesn't come clean about her marriage? If the Nurse were really on her side, she'd help her get away to Mantua rather than encourage her to marry Paris. Why does no one bring up bigamy? Were they not actually legally wed without her father's permission? If there's an abbey, isn't there probably also a convent nearby where Juliet could take refuge? I feel like I'm missing something that could explain why we have to go into death potions and angst instead of something logical. Hell, we at least got pirates in Hamlet to explain what he was doing over a passage of time. Maybe it's not logic I need, maybe it's that there's been so much action done by our protagonists here, much initiated by Juliet, that for her to accept a crappy plan when logic says aren't there any other options feels false.
That first act was so much fun, though.