By Helen Ehrlich, News Editor
The Theater Program of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges is presenting a reversed version of “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Director Catharine Slusar. The play is toying with which scenes to feature, casting and the order in which the story is told.
Slusar has an extensive career dating back to her time at Yale University. She has taught and performed all over the world, as she brings politics, language and social elements to the stage. This political conscience is distinctly present in this Romeo and Juliet production, as it attempts to tackle the intensity of love during times filled by death.
The show is produced and directed by professors and students from across the Bi-Co. The theatre program stated that “the tale told in reverse is ultimately a journey toward love and possibility and away from death and destruction.”
Stage Manager Kanicha Nualkhair of Bryn Mawr shared, “Working on Romeo and Juliet has been an experience. We’ve spent so much time and effort…The actors have transformed the scene completely from the beginning of the process. It’s been a pleasure witnessing the scenes grow and evolve. While it’s become hectic these past few weeks with the ideas being finalized, it has been a very rewarding job. Even as an Assistant Stage Manager I feel very involved in the play and I feel very lucky to have been a part of this production.”
After two years of a pandemic, the bubonic backdrop of Shakespeare’s life provides a sense of eerie familiarity. His plays and sonnets are rife with matter regarding the plague, although it is never explicitly the focus of any of his plays. Shakespeare writes in “Macbeth,” “Alas, poor country,/Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot/Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing/But who knows nothing is once seen to smile…Dying or ere they sicken.” The existentialism of “As You Like It” delves into the phases of life, making it clear how Shakespeare’s view of life was skewed by the disease that ravaged his world.
In Shakespeare’s less popular “Timon of Athens,” the government repeatedly shuts down establishments and a man sends himself into exile, crying the word “plague” numerous times, “Plagues … Your potent and infectious fevers heap/On Athens!..Be crowned with plague…send them back the plague/Could I but catch it for them.” In “King Lear,” which Shakespeare wrote during the worst of the plague in his lifetime, themes of death and loss are woven through the text, though the presence of the plague is not direct. He writes mournfully, “Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked ’twixt son and father … we have seen the best of our time.”
The Friar’s quarantine is a crucial point in “Romeo and Juliet,” a show that was shut down for 14 months due to the plague. Shakespeare lived through five major outbreaks, and over the course of his playwriting career he utilized the word “plague” 107 times. The refusal to write a play exclusively about the plague fits the subtext that defines the Bryn Mawr and Haverford rendition of the classic show. Shakespeare was clearly impacted by the sickness that surrounded him, just as the cast, creative team and audiences of this rendition will be.
Actor Julia Saint-Amour from Bryn Mawr explained how the different approach to theatre helped to shape her experience in rehearsals. The experimentation that drives the storytelling also directed the rehearsal process for actors. Saint-Amour shared, “I can think of no better introduction to college theater than my experience so far in Romeo and Juliet! Our play relies just as much on the individual talent and creativity of the cast as it does the beauty of the original text. It has given me the chance to get to know upperclassmen, and to rediscover stage acting as an opportunity to be vulnerable, ridiculous, and sincere. Of course, our production of Romeo and Juliet is not a standard or linear one. At BMC you are not immune to the experimental twists and turns of liberal arts college theater, and before you know it, you are dancing in the dark on stage with little finger lights on your hands!”
Performances will be held on Friday, April 1 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, April 3 at 7:30 pm and the following weekend: Thursday; April 7 at 7:30 pm; Friday, April 8 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, April 9 at 7:30 pm.
The show is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made online here or you can call (610)-526-5300. You can also visit the Bryn Mawr College Office for the Arts in Goodhart Hall.
You can visit the Bi-College Theater Program on social media @bicotheater.
