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Romeo et Juliette


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On Saturday February 11 06, 2016 I saw the matinee of R&J with the following cast:

Juliette: Leslie Rausch Romeo: Jerome Tisserand

Mercutio: Ezra Thomson Friar Laurence: Miles Pertl (debut???)

Tybalt: Seth Orza Lady Capulet: Kylee Kitchens (debut)

The Nurse: Margaret Mullin Benvolio: Kyle Davis

Paris: Joshua Grant Rosaline: Sarah Ricard Orza

2 Acolytes: Ryan Cardea & Matthew Renko (both debuts)

I took a friend with me who normally prefers Shakespeare plays and the snarkier Broadway musicals (Book of Mormon, Matilda, etc). So how would she like this? She told me she really enjoyed Malliot’s version, altered Friar, odd suicide methods, and all. It was great to have a set of fresh eyes to have next to me, because this is my fourth Malliot R&J season and 7th or 8th time seeing the production. I felt like Forest Gump going to the White House….again. I comforted myself with Balanchine’s old quote: that even if you don’t like the dancing, close your eyes and enjoy the music. Well I liked the dancing, and Alistair Willis guest conducted and the Prokofiev washed over us like warm waves on a sandy beach. The blend of the horns was particularly beautiful.

As Romeo, Jerome Tisserand danced with heart-catching purity, but this Romeo doesn’t really show much of the silly-caddish-boy–turned-ardent-lover personality. This was my first time seeing Leslie Rausch as Juliette. The youthful confusion of loyalties, obedience, and rebellion was well acted. I do think she lacks some of the ethereal hand movements that this role requires, but she was very good.

As Friar Laurence, Miles Pertl had the height but not the emotional weight to pull off the character’s conflicts. I think I was spoiled to see Olivier Wevers own this role back in 2008 and no one else has really done it nearly as well. Kylie Kitchens acted well in her debut of Lady Capulet, but the essential grief scene when she sees Tybalt’s body wasn’t quite as powerful as it should be. She is a beautiful lyrical dancer, but lacks the strong panache that other PNB dancers bring to the role. She also had some hair issues in that scene (hair too slow to come out of the bun, and too obvious when she pulled on her pin).

Some of the staging seems to have changed (in the post performance discussion, this was noted). The strangulation of Tybalt just looked like some fumbling in the back of the stage, rather than the slow, drawn out miserable, homicidal death that I remember from 2 years ago when Batkhurel Bold was Tybalt. That was a “good” death in the theatrical sense. You really believed he was being strangled and slowly giving up the fight as the oxygen depleted. Normally this is my favorite scene from the ballet because there is so much going on for the story, the dancing, and blocking.

Kyle Davis Ezra Thompson played Mercutio like a stage animal, but lacked the Italian wicked charm. Caps off to Christian Poppe and Steven Loch as excellent Capulets in the corps. Margaret Mullin upheld the PNB “Nurse” standard of wonderful acting, dancing and comedy. It’s a great role and PNB dancers really put their hearts into it. My friend noted this was her favorite character of the ballet.

Regarding the faux death / follow up death scene: I’ve never liked Malliot’s choices. Juliette’s drugging isn’t clear at all to the audience. Romeo impaling himself on the onstage bed/wedge looks silly. So does Juliette’s self-strangulation. I don’t suspend disbelief as an audience member. They should just use knives and a potion, and better miming from the Friar to explain what the potion does.

All that said, I’m glad I saw the performances, heard the wonderful orchestra, and witnessed the debuts of secondary characters. The audience was rapt throughout, barely applauding until the very end and then about half of the audience stood for the ovation. What was most interesting was how young some of the audience members were – and yet the performance held their full attention. I’m happy PNB will acquire another Malliot work (Cendrillon) and relieved that R&J will probably take a rest for a while. No more trips for Jayne Gump to the PNB House for a while.

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Post-Script: At the post-performance discussion, I realized that it is high time for PNB to do some pre-question education for the audiences. Some of the questions were really just rambling commentary. Some commentary stopping mid-sentence without any point being made. (Seriously! Mid-sentence!)

Other times I had to wonder at the logic of the thought process of the audience members. Someone asked the dancers how preparing for this R&J is different than how the Royal Ballet prepared for the Macmillan R&J 55 years ago. How would the 25 year old PNB dancer know how Royal Ballet dancers prepared 55 years ago? Some questions were things that are easily googled on cell phones. Someone asked about the lighting technicalities (the dancers are not experts at lighting).

Rambling comments and compliments belong in beautiful letters mailed to Peter Boal, so he can distribute them to his board and staff. Maybe PNB should switch to the Proust questionnaire format that Vanity Fair magazine uses on the final page of each magazine (that would be fantastic, actually).

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"At the post-performance discussion, I realized that it is high time for PNB to do some pre-question education for the audiences."

I think we were at the same session (I saw both Saturday shows). Your comment here reminds me of an event I went to at Town Hall, where the rep from the presenter asked people to "put your question in the form of a question."

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On Saturday February 11 06, 2016........Friar Laurence: Miles Pertl (debut???)

Miles Pertl debuted as Friar Laurence on opening night Feb 5; indeed Pertl is playing the Friar in every single performance during this run.

BTW, I saw all 3 performances the first weekend. I had hoped to see Karel Cruz as the Friar in one of those three performances, and I was a bit disappointed when I realized that I would only see Pertl. However, did that feeling ever disappear quickly! IMO, Miles is spectacular in the role. For opening night he did a more than adequate job, and could be complimented just at that level; but he did not stop there. He got better and better with each performance.....not just the dancing, but the feeling. The Friar is a deceptively difficult role -- full of subtly and power. Pertl just went deeper and deeper into the role each time he did it. His body type enhances his superb interpretation....he is tall (6' 3") and lean. His grace reminded me of Olivier. I don't know how Boal pulled it off, but I think we all got lucky with this new hire!

P.S. At the post performance Q&A, Pertl used the word "honored" time and again to describe his feeling at being given the chance to do this role.

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(sorry for the length here)

After Nutcracker, I think Romeo and Juliet may be the most frequently produced ballet now – in the past, Swan Lake would probably hold that spot, but it seems to me that R&J has taken its place. It’s a familiar story with the possibility of romance and action – something for everyone. PNB’s former production, with choreography by Kent Stowell and designs by Ming Cho Lee and Theoni Aldredge, was very much in the traditional vein. Lavish and elaborate, Lee’s sets and Aldredge’s costumes emphasized the Renaissance setting, while Stowell packed the stage with people and business. It was a successful, conventional production using the Tschaikovsky score – when Peter Boal came to lead the company, I think he was looking for something that was significantly different.

The Mailliot version has all the essentials: a passionate couple struck by love, a busybody Nurse and a tortured Friar who both mean well but make trouble, and a community that can’t change the disastrous path they are all travelling. But in many respects it is almost a polar opposite to the Stowell. The production is stripped of the usual Renaissance décor, so that we see the tragedy unfold in a bright, white place. There are no swords, no potion bottles, no references to period dances or designs – it’s all on the dancers to tell a story. And there are relatively few of them – Lord Capulet is missing, as are Lord and Lady Montague. Juliet still has her nurse, and Romeo has Mercutio and Benvolio, but the usual raft of “friends” are gone. There are 17 dancers in the corps, and they only appear en masse a couple of times.

What this production does have are some really stellar roles for acting dancers. Both the Nurse and the Friar are dancing roles – unlike many other productions that use these spots for their retired character performers, Maillot has created principal level parts here. Several people have discussed the enhanced role for Friar Lawerence, so I won’t go into detail except to put ditto marks under the comments – it’s a complex role kinetically and dramatically. Miles Pertl is dancing the Friar through the whole run, and as Sandy McK observed, seems to be learning with every show. Excellent focus on details – he’s got the same attenuated lines that Karel Cruz has.

The Nurse is similar, not in style, but in skill – this is a part for someone with really good comedy timing. Like Pertl, Margaret Mullin is also cast in every performance. She made a good debut in the last run, and is getting a chance to dig into the part now. (previous Nurses are out -- Carrie Imler is on maternity leave and Rachel Foster seems to be still coming back from injury) The comedy is tricky in the big scene with Juliette – the phrases are really long, with an interior dynamic that needs clarity. The are little laughs and big ones – like someone honing a stand-up routine, you need to see how it all fits together.

Tybalt is another part that’s got one dancer – Seth Orza’s got all the performances. The character is as contentious as Mercutio, but the energy is different. He’s disdainful, but less sharp. He doesn’t fly off the handle quite so quick, but this means he doesn’t let off steam until things get really hot – it makes sense that he kills Mercutio rather than the other way around. Orza plays the dark parts really well.

I’m always a bit disconcerted when I watch Lady Capulet in a stage version of R&J – it often seems a much more tame part than the ballet versions I know. Balletic Lady Capulets all seem to rival Juliet in their high drama moments, and Maillot has made another one. Part of this comes straight from the score – it’s Prokofiev at some of his most clangorous – but I’d be very interested in seeing what a more subtle interpretation could do. Both Kylee Kitchens and Laura Tisserand thrash very effectively, but I imagine that Kitchens in particular could do a cold burn really well.

Mercutio starts out at a gallop and just goes on from there – there are very few moments of stillness or reflection. We know what’s going to happen to everyone, that’s just the way of it, but with Romeo and Juliet you get the sense that we might be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Mercutio just can’t change direction – in some ways he is the closest kinetic equivalent to the text in this ballet. The character as he’s written really can’t shut up, and Maillot’s Mercutio can’t stop. It’s interesting that his actual death is performed in slow motion, since really I think of him racing on so fast he’d impale himself on the rapier. There are no swords here – he’s killed by a blow to the head – but it’s odd to see it happen so slowly, since everything about him is about speed.

Some extra thoughts, from Saturday 2/6

Matinee: Kyle Davis (Benvolio) shakes his head like a puppy on his first entrance, and then nuzzles a random girl with the same energy. Steven Loch launches himself into the first ensemble section – he’s having a wonderful time. Both he and Seth Orza (Tybalt)

Costumes for the Montague women look like a riff on Fortuny gowns.

I don’t know if Jessika Anspach made it back from knee surgery for Nutcracker, but it’s very nice to see her back onstage here.

Kyle Davis plays Benvolio as slightly less sunny than Benjamin Griffiths, but he does have a great sidekick quality here. Ezra Thomson had a great moment as Mercutio with his finger under Seth Orza’s chin – a long, long take with rising tension.

Meg Mullin dusts the bench like it was at fault for her long tumble to the floor. Her finger business (beckoning Juliette and then scratching her ear) was just right.

Rausch had a great hoydenish quality on her first entrance – appetite for life. When her hand goes skittering all over the place, I wonder if she got that from her Nurse.

(there are all kinds of things going on with hands in this ballet – we don’t often see them used so effectively and evocatively)

Davis and Thomson have a great Tweedledum and Tweedledee rhythm after the ballroom scene – like they’re both a little buzzed and have to hold each other up.

There’s almost no stately Renaissance parading around in this version of the work – the ball is all rushing in and out. The music for the “Pillow Dance,” which is usually an expression of power, is used by the Friar in setting things up. Without that evocation of the status quo we miss some of the political elements in this version of the story.

The balcony scene could almost be renamed the playground scene – it’s all rushing about and playing games, so that the final moment, right before Romeo leaves, is all the more powerful for the contrast.

People keep saying how innovative Maillot’s use of cinema tools is (freeze frame, slow motion) but nowadays, anyone with a DVD player and a remote control can do the same.

I agree with Jayne that the potion-less potion scene needs more clarity – I don’t know that an actual prop would do it, but it’s a tough job for the dancers to manage without anything at all.

From Q/A (Ezra Thomson and Kyle Davis)

Q – the use of slow motion in the big fight scene

A – The difficulty is in maintaining attention during the slow activity, the action in the scene is not all fully set, so that there are places where you make choices or respond to whatever is happening.

Q – (to Kyle Davis) – How do you cover up your tattoo in performance?

A – he has a mesh sleeve he can wear when he doesn’t do much lifting. Otherwise, he uses kinesiologist’s tape, which is very flexible.

Q – Very specific lighting effects – any affect on performing?

A – There is almost no side light, most of the illumination is from above, does affect visual field.

Evening: Jonathan Porretta is back, after a long rehab, and it’s like seeing James Moore earlier in the season return with Prodigal Son – you can tell he’s really been thinking about this role. Very clear, highly developed sequences.

Noelanie Pantastico has spent the last 8 or so years living with this role and it really shows. She’s giving an incredibly refined performance – detailed and attentive. She’s not missing any opportunities. Her byplay with the nurse is just the right place between precocious child and young woman – when she flashes her breasts she is both proud and petulant.

Benjamin Griffiths (as Benvolio) matches his exuberance with gymnastics skills.

It’s very nice to see Pantastico and James Moore’s Romeo together again – it’s an excellent fit.
In the balcony duet, Romeo and Juliette have a chunk of abstract action that they manage to make seem narrative and metaphorical.

One result from the use of slow-motion is that we expect multiple perceptions on time through the whole thing. One you ‘break’ that run, you have to follow through on all the ramifications.

In the bedroom scene, Juliette really does push Romeo around, herding him towards the bed with her forehead. If she’d lived, would she have turned out like her mother (always trying to take advantage of the right thing, the good opportunity, the director.

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Rausch had a great hoydenish quality on her first entrance – appetite for life. When her hand goes skittering all over the place, I wonder if she got that from her Nurse.

We could be talking apples and oranges, but if we are talking about the same hand gesture, I'm curious what you think of this interpretation. The gesture I am referring to is a hand that "flutters" out of control, with a mind of its own, looking much like a butterfly, which the "owner" (Juliette, Romeo, and I'm not sure anyone else) must "chase" and catch up with.

Somewhere along the line in previous seasons it dawned on me that this gesture might symbolize the lover's heart. The owner's heart has taken leave of its senses and flies (flutters) around with uncontrolled passion. Both R&J do it. At the end of the rather long sequence (for a mime gesture), the owner grabs the out-of-control fluttering hand with their other hand and firmly slaps the fluttering hand to their chest -- as if to put the heart back where it belongs and under at least a modicum of control.

sandik, what do you think?

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I think that your interpretation could certainly work here. The hand and heart connection shows up a couple of times in the balcony scene as well,as when he shams sleep, and she checks to feel his heart beating,. (I remember when the company was first getting ready to do the ballet and they included this scene in a sneak peek program -- Pantastico as Juliette gave her Romeo's chest a couple of thumps, like she was administering CPR).

There's an emphasis on hands altogether in Maillot's production, as if he's developing an alternative to the traditional mime gesture language. I love the Nurse's long hand phrases in her first scene with Juliet, and then in the crypt, it's a sequence with hands that convinces her that Juliette is dead. I imagine this comes from the original text, where there are several key statements about hands, but I find it interesting that Maillot doesn't just give us literal interpretations of the language.

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