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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Verona - 2374 - in rehearsal. Pictures: Roy Palmer Romeo and Juliet
Hall Green Youth Theatre
**** FEW plays can be as well-known or
well-loved as Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers, nor, along with
Hamlet, be as much performed. And Shakespeare is not the easiest for young
actors; it might be written in the most beautiful English language you
will ever hear but these days, four centuries on, you are not going to
hear it on the High Street or in even the poshest of pubs. So the
youngsters did remarkably well to bring the language to life and,
thankfully, to avoid the pitfall of speaking the words in lines as
written making it all sound like badly written poetry. Directors Roy Palmer and Daniel Robert Beaton
have worked hard on a natural delivery and it showed with words, in the
main, flowing as conversation. The play has spawned
operas, at least 27 of them, ballets, works of art and countless films,
notably Franco Zefferelli’s stunning 1968 version and more recently
Baz Luhrmann's 1996
Romeo + Juliet
set in a war between rival mafia families in
modern day upstate New York. It also gave us what many regard as the
finest musical yet written, West Side
Story set between street gangs in
1950’s New York. Hall Green
have taken it even further from its Elizabethan origins, setting it in a
post-apocalyptic Verona in 2374, a scene set by a video wall of nuclear
destruction and a landscape of a broken civilization, all to a rhythmic
beat from the entire cast which also welcomed the audience – a memorable
and hypnotic opening.
The date was
not an affected attempt to be different though, it had very practical
considerations not least the prohibitive cost of decking a large cast in
Italian Renaissance costume. Set far in the future it meant the cast had
the chance to design their own costumes and their own jewelry, two extra
aspects of theatre in which they could be involved, and to add their own
make-up. The result was an interesting mix of Mad Max and Goth with a
hint of New Wave. The play is
not about any particular era it is about two lovers from warring clans,
which has seen productions in settings of black and white, Palestinian
and Israeli, Protestant and Catholic – any two groups where there is
conflict. Here, apart
from costume, and a nifty doubled bladed dagger, Hall Green’s version
could be set at any time, concentrating upon the story, with a little
added ingenuity. A dirth of
boys in the youth theatre meant Megan Matthews became Romeo. It is by no
means the first time our lover boy has been a lover girl, but does make
the role doubly difficult and one which was manfully carried out by
Megan who had suffered a painful and bruising fall a couple of days
earlier in rehearsal which had left her in some discomfort. Emily Beaton
at first seemed a little unsure of herself as Juliet but came alive
splendidly when first she was threatened by her father Lord Capulet
(Daniel Robert Beaton) with a marriage to well-bred Paris (Devon Riley)
having already been secretly wed to Romeo by Friar Lawrence (Luke Elinor)
and then flowering when she faced death – twice. Her final
scene even brought a couple of gasps from the audience which was
surprising, proving perhaps that Romeo and Juliet might be known of
rather than actually known as a play in some quarters.
Incidentally,
Lord Capulet and his Lady wife (Esther Roden) and Lord Montague (Mary
Ruane) were adults playing the three older characters, the parents, in
this tragic tale. The acting
honours though, go to two of the lesser, yet most important characters,
fourth and sixth in the number of lines in the full play, the Nurse and
Mercutio. The nurse,
who has brought up Juliet from birth is played and indeed owned by Katie
Driver with a voice that could shatter anvils. She recites Shakespeare
in a wonderful, matter of fact way, finding all the nuances and humour
of the character Shakespeare created. Equally
impressive is Charlotte Crowe as Mercutio, a close friend of Romeo, yet
being neither Montague nor Capulet, able to move freely between both
houses. She is another who makes her speeches appear completely natural,
dictated by their natural rythym and phrasing and not the lines as
printed. Jack Heath
gives us a remarkably bolshie Tybalt, the Capulet hard man and the sort
of bloke who could pick an argument with his reflection in a mirror. He
sees his role in life as carrying onan endless war against the
Montagues. Gone are the
elegant sword fights of tradition, here we have a much grittier battle
ground and some of the fight scenes are quite vicious showing plenty of
pent up anger in the long standing feud. And when it
comes to anger, then there is the Prince, a remarkably angry royal in
the hands of Joseph Allen. He seems to have two moods, vile and even
more vile, as he tries to stop the battling clans. Music
Director Roseann Smith has created a constant background of percussion
on a collection of instruments made by Roy Palmer which at the start of
each act are played by the entire cast and throughout by a group of
musicians, Erin Kilker, Ruth Holland and Maryaam Kaleemullah all led by
Roseann, hidden on screen behind a screen. It is an effective addition
to scenes. There is
solid support from the rest of the cast and an impressive moment when a
minor medical problem in the audience caused a bit of a kerfuffle and
the cast carried on without the slightest hint of a stutter. Jean Wilde
has edited the script to reduce it from its full length in excess of
three hours without interval to a more manageable length of just below
two hours including interval, a task she has managed without losing the
essence of the story. An
entertaining and creditable production of a far from easy play. To
25-02-17 Roger
Clarke 17-02-17 |
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