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Romeo & Juliet
Presented by:
M & M Productions
Venue:
Cromwell Road Theatre, South Yarra
Reviewer:
Angela Ellis
Date
Reviewed:
Wednesday 4th
March 2009
I’m a huge lover of all things Shakespeare so when the call came to
review a production of Romeo and Juliet I jumped at the chance.
M&M Productions have taken on the heavy & brave task of not only
tackling Shakespeare (and one of his most loved and famous stories),
but attempting to modernise and bring it into the 21st Century. This
is no easy feat for anyone, least of all a relatively new company
with so many young performers. For this fact alone the company
should be congratulated.
Directed by David Clisby, this production of Romeo and Juliet was
set in a western city not unlike Melbourne (as our program tells
us). Gangs of warring families rule the streets and somehow in the
midst of all the hate two young people from opposing sides fall into
a tragic & powerful love.
Lighting was handled well by David Clisby and Nathan Biggins, and
for something new we had live music being played on stage and
incorporated very well into the show by Ruben Clisby.
This was a large cast, some playing multiple roles. Everyone seemed
to be relishing their part, be it big or small and the energy and
enthusiasm was certainly apparent.
Josh Sittrop as Romeo definitely has that “something” about him. He
looks comfortable and natural on stage and after some settling in he
began to work well with all his fellow actors. His final scenes in
particular are when he came into his own. I look forward to seeing
more of Josh in the future.
Juliet played by Jen Bush definitely had the look that was needed.
She played Juliet with all the sweetness and innocence that the role
required.
Again, like Josh, it was some of her final scenes that she really
brought the true essence of Juliet’s character to life. Well done.
Kristie Vidotto as the Nurse in her first foray into the amateur
theatre world injected some lovely and at times much needed fun,
laughter & energy. Kristie did a great job as our comic relief and
the audience certainly looked forward to her returning to the stage,
but moments of restrain were needed in some of the more morose
scenes. Bringing the news of Tybalt’s death at Romeos hands for one.
Dialogue was rushed at the start and I found it very hard to
understand what looked to be (for all the energy that was going into
the movement and facial expressions) a fun scene. I do however look
forward to seeing Kristie again in some more comic roles.
Special mention needs to go to Peter Garratt as Friar Laurence who
made the Shakespearian language almost appear as if that is his
first language and our modern English a distant second. He
understood everything he was saying and believed every word which in
turn helped to give the audience a clearer understanding. The same
could be said for Tara Rankine in her role as the Prince. Tara was
natural and has a wonderful stage presence.
I commend anyone for attempting to modernise this play. It is a
timeless story; I however actually found it hard to find the need to
modernise this particular production. Yes, some of the costumes
consisted of jeans and backward baseball hats not unlike what is
worn today, yes, there was some graffiti on some of the sets, but it
was the lack of consistency with these that I felt most confused
with. Some costumes could have been taken from the 60’s or 70’s and
some of the sets could have been from the era of Shakespeare
himself.
In the production notes it is written that that it is helpful to
“act out” some scenes to make it more accessible to modern
audiences. The language of Shakespeare is difficult, but the scenes
that seemed to be overly acted seemed to be quite obvious as to what
was going on in the text anyway, and whilst they provided some area
for the actors to show their comic abilities I found it all to be a
bit too much and drawn out and while laughing at the actors we lost
the nature of the words & in turn led to more confusion than was
necessary.
I do congratulate this young cast on producing and performing a show
with energy and obvious enthusiasm. I look forward to seeing what
M&M Productions create in the future.
Angela Ellis has worked both professional and non-professionally in
the industry for over 15 years. Having worked in all aspects of
theatre including, direction, stage management, sound and lighting,
her acting roles include Cherry in Cosi, Hero in Much Ado About
Nothing and Bobbie in the recent production of Losing Louis.
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