Review // Romeo and Juliet at the American Repertory Theatre

Romeo and Juliet is now playing at The American Reparatory Theater in Cambridge and from their advertisements that quote the Boston Herald, they aim to present a version of the Shakespearean play that is “turning Shakespeare’s iconic work into something as much about love as hate.”

This approach is a bit confusing to me because all of the messaging I have ever gotten around the play over my lifetime was more about the love between the titular characters than it was about the fighting between the Capulets and the Montagues. The fighting has always just been the background that makes these lovers star crossed, but their love is the focus of every production I’ve ever seen.

The scene from the play that is most often referenced in pop culture is the balcony scene, a love scene. When I was in AP English, I could quote most of Romeo’s lines from that scene. Yes, I was a nerdy theater kid. But I guess everyone has to have a “fresh, new” take on such an old play to interest theatergoers and Director Diane Paulus attempts to accomplish that with this production.

Something that shouldn’t have surprised me about this production, but did anyway, was the inclusion in the leaflet of support resources for people who might find themselves literally triggered by the violence in the play. The program (which you access by a qr code in the leaflet–how modern) led to resources such as general coping strategies, getting help, and grief & loss, and reconciliation that were curated by a Harvard-trained psychologist. It’s nice to know that the A.R.T. cares about its audience. I can’t help but wonder how many people felt the need to click through and get help after watching Romeo and Juliet.

This version of Romeo and Juliet used very minimal set design and modern costumes to tell the 2 hour and 45-minute-long story. The language and some of the plot has been updated, the “the thees and thous” were mostly removed to make things flow better for a modern audience, though I think the characters proclaimed, “how now?” as a greeting no less than a dozen times.

The stage designers made clever us of a revolving wood planked wall to set and transition scenes and there was a delightful scene with a garden. They made great use of globe lights to make the romantic scenes kind of dream-like. It was all very clever and modern.

The costume department did a great job making the characters look younger than the actor’s actual ages with clothes that were slightly too big and a bit infantilizing—especially with Juliet. The costumes really went a long way toward making both Romeo and Juliet seem young.

The acting by the cast was pretty solid, despite all of the humorous close talking by some of the characters. Both Emilia Suárez as Juliet and Rudy Pankow as Romeo did a serviceable job in their roles. The chemistry between them was solid. Terrence Mann made for a compelling Friar Laurence and brought a warmth and a humor to the role.

Sharon Catherine Brown was the humorous nurse to Juliet and played the physical comedy to perfection. Clay Singer made for an appropriately grating Mercutio; I was so relieved when his character exhaled his last breath. Terence Archie played Lord Capulet and gave a very steadfast performance.

The stage combat was greatly advertised for this production, so I was a little disappointed by how mediocre that felt. The music that played at pivotal points in scenes came across as emotionally manipulative and felt unnecessary. The stage itself elevated during some scenes which felt a little extra. Overall, it was a good production of Romeo and Juliet with some great performances and a decent retelling of a very familiar story. It runs at the A.R.T. during their 45the season until Oct. 6th.