The setting for the Rude Mechanical's Saturday performance of "Romeo and Juliet" on the Bema may have been unconventional, but together with the stellar performance by the 12-person ensemble, "Romeo and Juliet" was an exceptional theatergoing experience.
The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals was formed during the Fall 2008 theater foreign study program in London when four juniors were inspired to bring a Shakespearean acting company to Dartmouth. The group's name comes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in which a band of lower-class laborers described as "rude mechanicals" put on a play. As a tribute to Elizabethan theater, the Rude Mechanicals put on no-tech productions without lights or a set.
"Romeo and Juliet" was especially engaging because the actors and actresses utilized the available space on the Bema in its entirety, walking among audience members during several scenes.
David Mavricos '10 and Emily Baxter '11, who played Romeo and Juliet, portrayed the star-crossed lovers with impressive projection that commanded the audience's attention, despite the potentially distracting outdoor setting.
While Mavricos and Baxter depicted teenage angst and blind infatuation, the other cast members further energized the show with their takes on the supporting characters.
Adrian Garcia '10 embodied the balance between comedy and tragedy as the witty and flamboyant Mercutio. He drew laughter from the audience with his sharp comedic timing and successfully brought dramatic tension to the scene of his death, in which he curses the feuding Montague and Capulet households.
The audience was nothing less than delighted by Willa Johann '10, who played the loquacious but affectionate Nurse. Like Garcia, Johann portrayed her character with added spunk and phenomenal stage presence. She seemed to channel Miriam Margolyes from Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" (1996), who gave the Nurse an endearing quality.
"The Nurse was my favorite character from the show," Kristin Mitchell '12, who attended the performance, said. "I felt that [Johann's] especially humorous delivery somehow made her character more important to the storyline than in other versions of this play that I've seen."
The performance of Jay Ben Markson '10, who played Friar Lawrence, was appropriately empathetic and calm for a character who unfortunately fails in his attempt to help the young couple after Romeo's banishment from Verona. The calm levelheadedness of Markson's Friar provided a stark juxtaposition to the thrashing impulsiveness of Mavricos' Romeo, creating an interesting dynamic between the characters.
Whereas Mercutio, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence were affable characters, Tybalt, as brought to life by Bill Calder '12, was hateful and belligerent. Calder depicted Tybalt's scorn for Romeo with an effective realism that displayed the unfortunate consequences of Romeo and Juliet's relationship to the audience.
The two minor characters that most noticeably came to life, however, were Capulet and Lady Capulet, played by Stewart Towle '12 and Mia Jessup '12. Although the two did not have the lengthiest stage time, they nevertheless delivered stirring performances. Towle gave a hot-blooded personality to Capulet, while Jessup moved the audience to sympathize with the detached Lady Capulet.
At the end of the play, the "Princess" -- changed from the original character of the "Prince" -- recited the famous final line, that there was never a more woeful story than that of Romeo and Juliet.
