Romeo and Juliet
Intiman Theatre, 2012
Written by William Shakespeare
Scenery by Jennifer Zeyl
Lighting by L.B. Morse
Costumes by Deb Trout
Sound by Matt Starritt
But, Ms Narver avoids all the pitfalls of the material and manages to bring a fresh spin and energy to the story with a theatrical setting that’s ambiguously modern to the point of being post-modern. There’s an odd sense of something not quite right in Ms Narver’s version of Verona, of a society that’s been fractured and rigidly reformed, but at a great cost.
In his “Romeo and Juliet,” William Shakespeare tells us Juliet is a dewy 13-year-old. We can also surmise that her paramour Romeo (“Upon whose tender chin, as yet, no manlike beard there grew”) is not much older.
Yet rarely does a stage production of this perennial romantic tragedy capture the full, blushing innocence, the exuberance and naiveté of lovers so young — and so rash, and doomed.Intiman Theatre Festival’s vital “Romeo and Juliet” is special that way, and one of the reasons to commend this pellucid, psychologically astute staging by director Allison Narver.
What hits you first is the dewiness of Fawn Ledesma’s Juliet, the lovestruck maiden of the House of Capulet. A pretty slip of a thing, she’s a daddy’s girl with a childish voice — a girl who twirls in her new party dress, playfully roughhouses with her cousin Tybalt (Shawn Law), and delights in the advances of a son of the rival House of Montague as one might in a thrilling new game. The excellent Quinn Franzen’s lanky and tousle-haired Romeo is her match in adolescent fervor and beauty. This fresh-faced and buoyant lad will, in a flash, slither up a tall pole to reach Juliet’s balcony to charm her with some of the most glorious love poetry ever penned. This sweet and oblivious youthfulness is offset by the dark shadow cast by Romeo’s volatile clansman Mercutio (Michael Place). The couple’s guilelessness is also framed by the anxieties and demands of the Verona elders who dote upon, yet fail, their young.
Most tellingly, the emotional catharsis that “R & J” promises is truly delivered. We watch helplessly as Romeo and Juliet’s innocence is tragically lost, “Like fire and powder/Which as they kiss consume.” And we mourn that loss.