“Romeo and Juliet” is one of those productions that
is put on arguably too often (and fairly shallowly by high school students),
and pop culture is inundated with references to it. For that reason, I’m almost
never inclined to see yet another tiresome non-interpretation of it. But the
play received an interesting treatment by local company Madness Most Discreet
in its “R&J Project: Romeo & Juliet Reimagined.” This
show was a total riot and impressively entertaining.
The pared-down production — played with only the barest set,
props, and costuming by only four actors at Blackfriars
Theatre — was made doubly impressive by adding the element that the audience chose
which players would perform which roles at the start of the show. This was what
drew me to the show, and I was sincerely glad I gave it a whirl.
By the drawing of names, random audience members assigned
Emily Drew to the role of Juliet; Matt McWilliams as Romeo; Rusty Allen as The
Nurse, Benvolio, Tybalt, among others; and Julie Reed as Lady Capulet,
Mercutio, Friar John, and others. Each performance was energetic and
impressively flawless — at the onset, the actors said they had each memorized
the entire play, but since they couldn’t possibly rehearse their
to-be-determined roles, they might look to one another for a slipped line here
or there. But I detected no such problems.
McWilliams’ depiction of Romeo’s transformation from brooding
lovebird to enraptured lover to tragic hero was perfect, and Drew played a
fresh, very likable, almost sassy Juliet. Together they had believable
chemistry and the infatuation between the doomed lovers was palpable.
Allen’s shifting from hilarious Nurse to menacing sworn enemy
was seamless, but Reed just about stole the show as an outrageously funny
Mercutio, wildly gesticulating and bringing his clownish personality into a
believable embodiment. I don’t take in as much theater as I’d like, but I’m
extremely interested in seeing more from this troupe.
“The R&J Project: Romeo & Juliet Reimagined”
will not be performed again during this year’s Fringe.
From that entertaining but ultimately tragic production I
fell head first into heavier, more concrete considerations: Table Top Opera’s
production of Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” (Songs on the Death
of Children) at Kilbourn Hall, with garland-bearing
putti sculpted high above the heads of the audience.
The show was a perfect example of a chain of artists inspired
by artists inspired by artists and lived tragedy. “Kindertotenlieder”
is a 5-piece song-cycle Mahler wrote based on poems by German writer Ruckert, penned in tribute to the two young children he
lost in quick succession to illness. Mahler — who had lost 8 siblings while
growing up — wrote the work between 1901and 1904, before he lost a dear child
of his own to illness a few years later.
The multimedia production featured unspeakably beautiful
music — a piano, bass, trombone, saxophone, violin, and keyboard in perfect
harmony — paired with Ruckert’s poems projected on a
screen with washes of color that reflected the imagery of light and darkness in
the verse. The sentiment ranged from hopeful and praise of the everlasting
light in the world, to mournful reflections on the loss of the joy the children
brought, and the painful illusion that the children aren’t gone but have just
gone out to play.
Also projected were images of children who had succumbed to
poverty-based tragedy in Mahler’s time and in present day Rochester, along with
horrifying percentages of child poverty in Rochester and information about initiatives
pursued then to assuage the symptoms of poverty, and the deaths.
“Kindertotenlieder” will not be performed again
during the 2015 Fringe.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2015.
