Jade Douris-O'Hara as Juliet gets a squeeze from her Nurse, played by Zach Colangelo. Photo by Sara Graham.
Drew Douris-O’Hara’s production of Romeo and Juliet, which plays until September 1st, 2023 at Shakespeare By the Sea is set in a world that looks and feels a lot like our own. The actors wear contemporary clothing, and dance to contemporary music at the Capulets’ party where our ill-fated protagonists first meet. This choice really accentuates the fact that this is a story about two teenagers who are rash, idealistic, and without fully developed prefrontal cortexes. I found myself continually struck in this production by how accurately Shakespeare captured the teenage experience of his time, and how while the way teenagers speak may have changed, what they say and how they behave has transcended the centuries.
Romeo and Juliet is plausibly dated to have been written in 1595 when Shakespeare was about 31 years old. His eldest daughter, Susanna, would have been about twelve then, while his youngest brothers, Richard and Edmund, would have been twenty one and fifteen respectively, so perhaps that, in part, accounts for his accuracy.
Part of what helps make this production feel so modern is the pacing of Drew Douris-O’Hara’s 90 minute adaptation, which captures nicely the breakneck speed of youth, and gives us the sense that part of the tragedy is that there is no time for Romeo and Juliet to hear wise counsel, or to take a moment to think things through rationally in a way that might help them escape their fate. They are running headlong toward their deaths, and there is nothing the well meaning adults in the play can do about it.
Shanoa Phillips and Aryelle Morrison play Romeo’s friends Benvolio and Mercutio as frenetic, irreverent, joyful weirdos annoyed that their friend has ghosted them at a party, and poking fun at his fickle yet wildly intense infatuations with girls. Even in the Montagues’ rivalry with the Capulets, and their run-ins with bully Tybalt Capulet (played by Zach Colangelo) especially, Benvolio and Mercutio seem more like they’re just fucking around. This highlights how senseless the violence between Mercutio and Tybalt is, that they have been dragged into this familial drama that not everyone in the younger generation even still takes seriously.
The adult figures in the play are portrayed as more rational, but are also caught up in their own limitations. Geneviève Steele is absolutely brilliant as Juliet’s mother, Capulet, a wealthy woman who doesn’t have the time or the patience for her daughter’s shenanigans, but who is also cool enough to tell her nephew to mind his business when Romeo crashes their party. The awkward distance between Capulet and Juliet here seems typical of a powerful woman who loves her daughter and wants to set her up to be successful, but who has also left most of the day to day raising and nurturing up to a Nurse. Michael Kamras’ Friar Laurence tries his best to act like a parent figure to Romeo, often marvelling over how insane the words coming out of Romeo’s mouth sound to an adult, but, being a Friar, he can only do so much to help. Zach Colangelo’s Nurse, on the other hand, tries to help Juliet to both follow her heart AND to be practical, which allows Juliet to run roughshod right over her.
Romeo and Juliet are not played by real teenagers, which makes it even more impressive how thoroughly you believe that Patrick Jeffrey and Jade Douris-O’Hara are about fifteen and seventeen years old in these parts. Jeffrey’s Romeo has two speeds, he either meanders sheepishly like he isn’t sure where he’s going or what he wants to do, or he runs as fast as he possibly can. As poetic as Shakespeare’s language is, often when Jeffrey muses as Romeo you can hear the teenager rambling, making everything up as he goes along, amusing himself with his own charm, and building the crush up, as teenagers do, until it is as wide and all encompassing as the sky. Similarly, at the beginning of the play Jade Douris-O’Hara’s Juliet is excited to engage in this flirtatious power dynamic with Romeo, where she oscillates between being more aloof and holding the power, and then giving in to her emotions and hormones. It’s clear this is new for her, and she is having fun figuring out what kind of girlfriend, what kind of wife, she can be, will be, should be. Conversely, when everything comes crashing down Douris O’Hara is perfection as the devastated teenager reckoning with the impossible truth that her husband has murdered her cousin and all is lost.
Along with creating such a sleek adaptation Drew Douris-O’Hara has double cast many of the roles, and I just loved watching a production where the same actor played both the Nurse and Tybalt.
While the play is, obviously, quite sad, Shakespeare has provided lots of comic relief throughout the earlier parts of the story, and this production really makes the most of every opportunity for fun and silliness, especially with the Nurse, Mercutio, Benvolio, messenger characters Peter and Gregory, played by Rachel Lloyd, and the oblivious suitor Prince, played by Chris George. On Thursday there was a little bit of extra whimsy when a dog ran up onstage to give Romeo some kisses while the latter was whining to Friar Laurence about how much his life sucks. It is all part of the live experience of Shakespeare in a park.
This contemporary staging of Romeo and Juliet really worked for me, and gauging from the responses of the teenagers in the audience, it seems to really work for them as well. Whether you believe the story to be about true love or puppy love, you can choose for yourself here. Either way, it doesn’t change the impact of the ending, which really is the death of innocence, the death of the naive certainty that we are impervious to the world around us, and that nothing calamitous could ever happen to us. Unlike Hamlet, Lady MacBeth, or even Nick Bottom, this production is a beautiful reminder that we were all, I think, a little like Romeo and Juliet once. Thankfully (hopefully), minus that damn plague on their houses.
Romeo and Juliet plays in repertory with Pinocchio: The Musical Adventure until September 1st, 2023 at the Cambridge Battery inside Point Pleasant Park (5530 Point Pleasant Park Drive, Halifax). To see the show schedule please visit this website. Tickets are available on a sliding scale from PWYC to $50.00. $50.00 tickets include front row centre seats, all other seating that includes chairs costs $30.00, and the PWYC pricing allows you to sit where you would like in the Cambridge Battery and you can bring your own chair. Tickets are available HERE, or at the door the day of the show.
Shakespeare By the Sea is wheelchair accessible and anyone with accessibility needs can book a ride from the upper parking lot in Point Pleasant Park to the Cambridge Battery venue. Dogs are welcome, and all performances are Relaxed Performances. For more information about accessibility please visit this website or call 902.422.0295 for more information.
