PLAINFIELD – One of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays, “Romeo and Juliet,” is currently being performed on two successive weekends this month at the Haybarn Theatre on the Creative Campus of former Goddard College by the Plainfield Little Theater, imaginatively directed by Tom Blachly. It inaugurates the Green Mountain Shakespeare Festival, which will give several other productions this season.
This tragedy, in which five of the main figures die (six if one includes Romeo’s mother, who expires from grief), has resonated over the centuries with so many people’s experiences and feelings with its eternal themes of young romantic love and toxic communal conflict.
“Romeo and Juliet” was written around 1592, though no written records of its staging survive until 1597. Originally the basic story line was derived from Italian sources and a poem by Arthur Brooke published in 1562, but Shakespeare enriched it with his amazing ability to create vivid characters and complex plots, all with many passages of poetic beauty.
Set in Verona, a northern Italian city-state, it has as a background the long term enmity between two powerful families, the Montagues and the Capulets, typical in these times of the Renaissance. The underlying hope of the love and marriage between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet is that it might bridge this chronic polarization and bring lasting peace to the city.
Over the past 400 years there have been many interpretations of the play, revolving around fatal flaws in the different persons, leading to mistaken choices, or some transcendental fate that doomed any happy ending. But maybe it just comes down to the deeper issue of love versus hatred that so plagues our human species, which remains sadly relevant today.
Leonard Bernstein made a modern version of “Romeo and Juliet” in “West Side Story” in 1957, and it could be given contemporary meaning if set in Belfast, Ireland, Israel-Palestine or any of the other tragically divided places in the world.
The casting by Tom Blachly in this production is very strong, with Lila Stratton showing her dramatic talents very convincingly as Juliet, a role with many intense emotional moments. Evan Lewis portrayed Romeo with impressive skill, keeping in character as one who tries repeatedly to avoid violence but inadvertently gets drawn into the passionate outbursts of others. His close friend Mercutio, well played by Jeff Maclay, representing the opposite tendencies to provoke conflicts which could have been avoided. Similarly Tybalt Caulet, acted with studied macho posturing by Wren Perchlick, is aggressively confrontational. Both meet untimely ends, worsening the family feud and undermining the possibility that Romeo and Juliet’s love might heal these divisions.
Carl Etnier as Lord Capulet was excellent in a number of dramatic scenes where he tries to deal with Juliet’s defiance to an arranged marriage to another suitor, believably conveying his paternal authority. His wife, Lady Capulet, was expressively acted by Jessica Bella Pepa Clayton, as a somewhat conflicted mother. Calvin Lane as Paris, to whom Juliet was promised by her parents, was very much in character as a highly attractive local aristocrat, but he becomes the third to die in an unnecessary duel towards the end of the play. Friar Laurence, who does so much to help the lovers, was given a fine performance by Jesse Clayton. Susannah Blachly had great stage presence as Juliet’s Nurse, whose confused and bumbling demeanor adds a note of humor to juxtapose with the unfolding tragedy. Another of Romeo’s friends, Benvolio, was brought to life by Alex Yam-Halberg.
Other supporting actors and actresses were Robbie Harrold as Escalus, the ruling Prince of Verona, Bob Rosenfeld as Lord Montague, Olivia Gray as Lady Montague, Alexander Clayton as Peter and Ariabella Clayton as Angelica, two of the Capulet’s servants, and Sarah Hooker as an Apothecary and Watch. Mention should also be made of the skillful sword fighting directed by Trevor Tait.
Further performances in this summer’s Green Mountain Shakespeare Festival will be mainly in August, including two-woman scenes from Shakespeare, a one-man evening of Shakespeare, a new playwright’s festival and the “Taming of the Shrew.”
The next performances of “Romeo and Juliet” will be June 26 to June 28, 7 p.m.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
