ROMEO AND JULIET
Footsteps Theatre Company
Director Jean Adamak easily avoids this trap with her all-female cast. By requiring women to interact romantically–even sexually–with other women she breaks the romantic stereotypes every actor brings to this play. So Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting is played as a thrilling flirtation, rather than as the first meeting of the two greatest lovers in history–which is more genuine. Their kiss might not be anything more than that. The weight of the play comes later, after Juliet has spent some time with Romeo.
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And then there are those star-crossed lovers. As Juliet, Diana James exudes a youthful innocence. She can completely delight in Romeo’s love because she has known no sorrow. Her sense of humor sparkles with a sly wit and a lust for life. Likewise, her pain at the end of the show cuts all the more deeply because her heart is innocent.
Much of this could have been overcome with some creative staging–simple things, like putting the two lovers nearer to each other and telling them when to touch to at least give the illusion of passion. But director Alec Wild doesn’t do much with the staging. When one person talks, the others stand dully waiting for their turn to speak. Even the fighting is sloppy. In the play’s most tragic moment Othello faces the audience and plainly shoves his dagger between his arm and rib cage–then expects the audience to think he’s killed himself. Kirk Sanders delivers a respectable performance as the noble Cassio, and Jack Sanderson pulls off some good moments in his three small parts. Otherwise the acting is stiff, the language flat, and the story dull.
