Hot Man on Man Shakespeare
I posted my review of last night's Romeo and Juliet over at Two Hours Traffic hereabouts. I will NEVER FORGIVE the director for callously squandering a thrust stage, nor can I forgive him for rambling on in interviews about how cool it is that Juliet has all these supposedly masculine qualities while Romeo has the feminine ones and then making a production where it hardly matters what Juliet's packing, because nothing ever comes of that casting choice.
Ah well.
There were LOTS of leather trousers, however, which was a good thing, and Mercutio did PULL UPS off the set, which was a VERY GOOD THING INDEED. We had front row seats and it was a fun time. I'll probably try and see it once more, to see how it changes over time, but the for rest of you.... Meh. *shrug* Give me Joe Calarco and Shakespeare's R&J any day. That production had EVERYTHING- incredibly fierce male energy, passion, theatrical inventiveness, wildly thoughtful doubling, and a rendering of the text that made it SOAR for me, perched up in the Arts Theatre balcony, hanging onto every word as though I'd never even heard of this Romeo kid before.
YUM.
Man oh man, that play. For those unfamiliar, it gives Romeo and Juliet a frame story, where four boys in a boarding school have snuck out at night and find a copy of the play, which they suddenly decide to read and perform for each other. For the boys, it's all forbidden and dangerous and new, and all they have are each other, one copy of the text, four chairs, a trunk and a long red scarf for props. There's a moment, early on- the boys have just reached the scene with the Nurse, Lady C, and Juliet. The two boys playing the older women camp it up ABSURDLY for the opening exchange, going for the laughs from the audience and each other. The boy playing Juliet drifts upstage, with his back to the others. At his cue, he turns and with utter sincerity and seriousness, he answers their call: How now! who calls?
Everything just STOPS. He's utterly in the scene, utterly Juliet, and utterly himself- a young man on the verge of something new, something adult and exciting. The other boys stop their fooling and the entire tone changes- everyone's in it for real, now. Now, it's for real. We never lose sight of the boys behind their parts, but they've all realised that there's truth in the play and in themselves that they access when they read the words.
IT IS AMAZING AND IT CHANGED EVERY, EVERY, EVERYTHING I SEE IN THAT DAMN OLD, TIRED OUT PLAY.
And so now, I have to picspam you. :)
Early on- this is our Juliet and Benvolio in the foreground
This is what happens right after the scene I described- almost hypnotically, the Nurse, Lady C, and Juliet sit and begin to mime sewing for the rest of their scene. It's GORGEOUS.
I think this is Romeo, just before the balcony scene. A tiny, quiet moment of reflection that I have in an icon for when I'm feeling pensive.
This is from the balcony scene. This is what I love- that's Romeo on Juliet's back. These are strong, athletic, entirely masculine boys. There's no self-conscious effeminization here.
That red cloth is used for EVERYTHING- when Romeo and Juliet meet and speak for the first time, they spin around holding the cloth tight between them. Here, it's been used for a brutal tug of war and slowly, it's dragged out from Mercutio as he is stabbed and dying- dragged by Romeo.
Gallop apace, you fiery footed steeds. That same cloth is now Juliet preparing her bridal bed for Romeo. OMG I LOVE IT. She uses it later in the scene to wrap around her neck like a noose in her desperate agony, before giving it to the Nurse as the ring for Romeo.
Some characters are done chorically- this is the apothecary, done by the other three boys. Note that red cloth...
Romeo comes into the tomb. The lighting for this show was just gorgeous...
This is the image used in all of the advertising for the show, and you can imagine why. My heart aches when I see it.
This is from the very end. The text of Romeo and Juliet is ended abruptly as the night ends and the students are called back into real life by a school bell. Student 1, Romeo, is desperate for it not to end and begs the others to stay with him for one more moment, while they shift back into the rigidity of school. They join hands briefly for the final lines of the play, but we end with our Romeo alone on stage, clutching the fabric and heart-breakingly repeating 'I dreamt a dream tonight...'
OMG IT GETS ME EVERY DAMN TIME. It's a play about what it means to DO a play, to be changed forever by a play and it just so happens to use some of the most beautiful text ever written. It breathes life into a play we all think we know too well and you'll never get it out of your head, no matter how many other productions of Romeo and Juliet you'll ever see. I spoke with Matt Sincell, my Student 1, when he was spending a season in Staunton, VA, and I tried my darndest to let him know how much it had meant to me. We later geeked out over the Globe together and I learned some fabulous things from him, but honestly, I never stopped fangirling him in my heart and it was all because of his association with this play.
Ok, I'm going to stop being a theatre geek on the internet and go be a regular geek and do some homework. By reading about Elizabethan theatre. OMG IT NEVER ENDS.
PS THREE DAYS, BABY!
ETA: from a conversation with Elissa...
me: i wrote on the blog that i would bake ed hall cookies EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR if he would come do a residency here in dc
elissa: heee
me: i hope someone at propeller has what the shakespeare theatre has and gets an alert when they get mentioned
and then brings it over to ed for a joke
and then it turns out he's secretly a COOKIE FIEND
and then it all magically ends up happening
and simon scardifield and i live happily ever after, both of us in skirts
whatever the means, it must happen
YOU KNOW IT YOU WANT IT, ED. COOKIES. ALL THE COOKIES YOU CAN EAT. COOKIES TO LINE YOUR FRONT WALK WITH. COOKIES TO SHINGLE YOUR ROOF. COOKIES. COOOOOOOOOKIES. Just come here to DC and bring your Propeller boys and do fabulous, life-altering theatre EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE for a year. That's all I need! Simple, right? :D
ETA2: Um, now with accurate link. *facepalm*
Ah well.
There were LOTS of leather trousers, however, which was a good thing, and Mercutio did PULL UPS off the set, which was a VERY GOOD THING INDEED. We had front row seats and it was a fun time. I'll probably try and see it once more, to see how it changes over time, but the for rest of you.... Meh. *shrug* Give me Joe Calarco and Shakespeare's R&J any day. That production had EVERYTHING- incredibly fierce male energy, passion, theatrical inventiveness, wildly thoughtful doubling, and a rendering of the text that made it SOAR for me, perched up in the Arts Theatre balcony, hanging onto every word as though I'd never even heard of this Romeo kid before.
YUM.
Man oh man, that play. For those unfamiliar, it gives Romeo and Juliet a frame story, where four boys in a boarding school have snuck out at night and find a copy of the play, which they suddenly decide to read and perform for each other. For the boys, it's all forbidden and dangerous and new, and all they have are each other, one copy of the text, four chairs, a trunk and a long red scarf for props. There's a moment, early on- the boys have just reached the scene with the Nurse, Lady C, and Juliet. The two boys playing the older women camp it up ABSURDLY for the opening exchange, going for the laughs from the audience and each other. The boy playing Juliet drifts upstage, with his back to the others. At his cue, he turns and with utter sincerity and seriousness, he answers their call: How now! who calls?
Everything just STOPS. He's utterly in the scene, utterly Juliet, and utterly himself- a young man on the verge of something new, something adult and exciting. The other boys stop their fooling and the entire tone changes- everyone's in it for real, now. Now, it's for real. We never lose sight of the boys behind their parts, but they've all realised that there's truth in the play and in themselves that they access when they read the words.
IT IS AMAZING AND IT CHANGED EVERY, EVERY, EVERYTHING I SEE IN THAT DAMN OLD, TIRED OUT PLAY.
And so now, I have to picspam you. :)
Early on- this is our Juliet and Benvolio in the foreground
This is what happens right after the scene I described- almost hypnotically, the Nurse, Lady C, and Juliet sit and begin to mime sewing for the rest of their scene. It's GORGEOUS.
I think this is Romeo, just before the balcony scene. A tiny, quiet moment of reflection that I have in an icon for when I'm feeling pensive.
This is from the balcony scene. This is what I love- that's Romeo on Juliet's back. These are strong, athletic, entirely masculine boys. There's no self-conscious effeminization here.
That red cloth is used for EVERYTHING- when Romeo and Juliet meet and speak for the first time, they spin around holding the cloth tight between them. Here, it's been used for a brutal tug of war and slowly, it's dragged out from Mercutio as he is stabbed and dying- dragged by Romeo.
Gallop apace, you fiery footed steeds. That same cloth is now Juliet preparing her bridal bed for Romeo. OMG I LOVE IT. She uses it later in the scene to wrap around her neck like a noose in her desperate agony, before giving it to the Nurse as the ring for Romeo.
Some characters are done chorically- this is the apothecary, done by the other three boys. Note that red cloth...
Romeo comes into the tomb. The lighting for this show was just gorgeous...
This is the image used in all of the advertising for the show, and you can imagine why. My heart aches when I see it.
This is from the very end. The text of Romeo and Juliet is ended abruptly as the night ends and the students are called back into real life by a school bell. Student 1, Romeo, is desperate for it not to end and begs the others to stay with him for one more moment, while they shift back into the rigidity of school. They join hands briefly for the final lines of the play, but we end with our Romeo alone on stage, clutching the fabric and heart-breakingly repeating 'I dreamt a dream tonight...'
OMG IT GETS ME EVERY DAMN TIME. It's a play about what it means to DO a play, to be changed forever by a play and it just so happens to use some of the most beautiful text ever written. It breathes life into a play we all think we know too well and you'll never get it out of your head, no matter how many other productions of Romeo and Juliet you'll ever see. I spoke with Matt Sincell, my Student 1, when he was spending a season in Staunton, VA, and I tried my darndest to let him know how much it had meant to me. We later geeked out over the Globe together and I learned some fabulous things from him, but honestly, I never stopped fangirling him in my heart and it was all because of his association with this play.
Ok, I'm going to stop being a theatre geek on the internet and go be a regular geek and do some homework. By reading about Elizabethan theatre. OMG IT NEVER ENDS.
PS THREE DAYS, BABY!
ETA: from a conversation with Elissa...
me: i wrote on the blog that i would bake ed hall cookies EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR if he would come do a residency here in dc
elissa: heee
me: i hope someone at propeller has what the shakespeare theatre has and gets an alert when they get mentioned
and then brings it over to ed for a joke
and then it turns out he's secretly a COOKIE FIEND
and then it all magically ends up happening
and simon scardifield and i live happily ever after, both of us in skirts
whatever the means, it must happen
YOU KNOW IT YOU WANT IT, ED. COOKIES. ALL THE COOKIES YOU CAN EAT. COOKIES TO LINE YOUR FRONT WALK WITH. COOKIES TO SHINGLE YOUR ROOF. COOKIES. COOOOOOOOOKIES. Just come here to DC and bring your Propeller boys and do fabulous, life-altering theatre EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE for a year. That's all I need! Simple, right? :D
ETA2: Um, now with accurate link. *facepalm*