The Arden Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet doesn’t pretend it’s a love story. It is instead a story about childhood innocence, power, and violence. The first act introduces a strong and distinct tone that emphasizes the childishness and vulgarity of each character, including the adults. Romeo, portrayed by Gabe Moses, is not a romantic and swoon-worthy hero but instead clearly represents the arrogance of an ignorant teenager. Romeo oozes with misplaced confidence—everything, from his movements to his line delivery, intentionally make Shakespeare’s witty metaphors feel clumsy and awkward. Juliet is immature and innocent to an absurd degree. In Francesca Santodomingo’s iteration of the character, Juliet is giddy and childish, a giggling little girl in pigtails. Every emotion presented in the play is amplified, so much so that the famous scene on the balcony seems out of a comedy rather than a drama. The silly, childish teen angst is played for laughs throughout the entire first act, until Mercutio’s death.
Tyler S. Elliot as Mercutio, Travoye Joyner as Benvolio, and Moses have great chemistry, bouncing off each other energetically with a kind cruelty that only true friends have. Elliot brings a childish glee to Mercutio’s character, ultimately making his idiotic actions feel ever more tragic and his death all the more heartbreaking. His death is violent and shocking, full of blood and gore that gets drawn out for a disturbingly long time. His final scream is potent, haunting, and powerful, breaking through the established tone to set up for the second act.
The second act is such a sharp contrast to the silliness of the first— it hardly feels like the same production. The violence and cruelty displayed throughout the second act make the amplified emotions from the first act feel real and justified. The Arden Theatre production explores the cycles of violence as the adults in Romeo and Juliet’s lives switch between kindness and cruelty rapidly until Romeo and Juliet both feel as though they are left with no choices. At the end of the play, I wasn’t left feeling sad, but rather I was filled with dread. The amplified emotions, exaggerated immaturity, and intense violence allow the audience to feel Romeo and Juliet’s pain so vividly.
Amina Robinson, Romeo and Juliet’s director, says that she asked herself the question: “Why this play and why now?” Retelling a story is a risk, particularly one so well known as Romeo and Juliet, because it requires a strong vision and the ability to find a way to say something new. Robinson emphasizes in her director’s note that she wants “an ugly, violent Romeo and Juliet, highlighting the death and destruction of the world Shakespeare conceived, which is so reminiscent of our own.” The Arden Theatre’s production brings forth this newfound ugliness in this play that is the beating heart of this version of the story. It feels urgent and tethers Romeo and Juliet in the here and now.
Romeo and Juliet runs from March 5th to April 5th on the F. Otto Haas Stage.
