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"Romeo and Juliet, on Motifs of Shakespeare"


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Romeo and Juliet, on Motifs of Shakespeare

Choreographed by Mark Morris

Performed by the Mark Morris Dance Group

14 March 2009, 7:30 PM

Krannert Center - Tryon Festival Theater

Orchestra Center, Row V, Seat 5 (last row, approximately center, on steep incline to stage)

I gave up my initial idea of adding yet more profundity to the subject of gender politics somewhere between the first and second scenes of Act I. What more can I say that others have not stated already? That women were cast Tybalt and Mercutio and added a predictable but curiously heterosexual slant to those characters (and to those interactions with their male peers)? That indeed the sexual politics of the adult world include a heavy element of violence; and of, in Mr Morris's words, women's ability to fight back (only) in context of their positions and roles?

Krannert does not have the best acoustics from the pit - the orchestra must sit very low and the sound (which logically follows location) emanates from a boxed opening before the stage, affecting the quality greatly. There were a few scary moments with the strings at first, but tensions were worked out as musicians dug deeper, both dramatically and chronologically, into the score. Prokofieff's restored score was a revelation. I heard it with some disbelief, not believing that such minor changes could have wrought so much. There is a lushness and delicacy of timbre and tone that was missing previously, and it seems to have become more thematically varied. I no longer felt as if the various leitmotifs directed the brass to relentlessly pound my ears into submission.

The New York Times review disliked the production with more energy than I was capable of last night. I will not repeat Mr Macaulay's exact words on the needless repetitions of steps except to say that I share them, and that I began to cringe halfway through the second scene as the hitch steps and the endless low arabesques detracted my attention from the action with their predictability and their regular devotion to the melody. The choreography is not not musical, but it is wedded to an annoyingly regular melodic sense that positions the steps within the music instead of through the musical phrases.

Morris's Verona is a sensual and interactive world. Dancers form relationships with each other, indulge in games, clumsy plots, and occasionally transparent enmities that are covered over with cartoonish displays of friendship when the Prince (or perhaps the parent) approaches. Tho' brutal in the machinations of men and women (see Lady Capulet's introduction of Juliet to Paris by a shove, also Paris's manhandling of Juliet during the banquet), it is one in which the men and women seem to have apparent sexual lives without relegating it to the realm of MacMillan's courtesans or (even worse, perhaps) yet another psychological drama involving Siegfried's tutor.

Maile Okamura was a superb Juliet. Her restraint made Juliet poignant, deeply unhappy and in search of something more equal and tender than what Paris, merely a rich thug in this production, was capable of. It was clear in her duet with lady Capulet that she was not a fully grown woman. Where as Lady Capulet, all heavy skirts and sombre hair, sank into the steps as if mired in the concerns and power games of that fair city, Juliet in white floated above them, delicately sculpting the air as if to delineate a higher realm in which she still dwells. However, even in her action there is some level of resignation - the poison holds no perverse fascination for her, she takes it as is her duty.

Romeo, whose name I will recall if only I had my program - where oh where is it, was a peculiarly gentle man, his bearing often reminding me of Dear Ashley Wilkes (for good or ill) off in world parallel to this one. However, as mystically and ecstatically connected as the young people were at first meeting, neither provided sufficient dramatic motivation to the audience for taking action in order to be together; instead, they were pulled and pushed in various directions, subordinate to the Needs of the Plot instead of the Dictates of Emotion.

These dramatic inconsistencies proliferate throughout the production. Mercutio is still a jester, a mad cap prankster whose character is fleshed out during a pantomime sequence with Juliet's nurse, but the dramatic development comes too late, as Romeo is instead convinced to go to the Capulets' party by unknown means. Rosaline was included in this production and explicitly rejected Romeo at the party for sake of emotional closure in one of his relationships. However, was this rejection out of duty? Sheer dislike? I could not read it clearly and she faded into the general obscurity in the company of other townsfolk soon after. However, as this scene came at the expense of establishing Mercutio's relationship and importance to Romeo, the poignance of Mercutio's death is undercut by his portrayal as simply the Jester and I could have done without it.

Two other relationships were of special note: that of Friar Laurence, now a much younger and vital man, with Romeo, and that of Nurse and her servant. We see Romeo glancing sharply at Friar Laurence during the establishing scene - the relationship is never explained. Was it a warning from the Friar, a warning to Romeo over his impetuous emotions? Had the Friar identified his likely instrument for reconciling the ancient feud? We are never told. Instead the Friar resumes his wiseman role before briefly transforms into a dancing role in Act III, illustrating a non-point to Juliet for reasons that are dramatically obscure. Second, the Nurse oscillated between moments of intense identification and blankness with Juliet. Was her servant (the man in the green cap she dances with) simply a servant? It seemed like her sympathy toward Juliet could have been motivated by a similarly confounding relationship with man (perhaps that servant) but it is never entirely made clear. Again, her rejection of Juliet is not dramatically consistent in Act IV - there is no inner struggle, the Nurse does so because the plot demands it but there are no hidden feelings nor conflicts. One other outstanding character had no set choreography: he is simply the Prince's flag-bearer. Perhaps even more self-important than the man he serves, he paces about the town with a measure of self-important insouciance that even his master could not (or would not) match.

Macaulay discussed several plot inconsistencies, so I will skip over those (I share most of his objections) and expand yet again on my perception of Morris's logic of setting dance to music. The choreography was most effective for pairs and single dancers - the dance of the townsfolk with their stylistic poses and shuffle steps was repetitive and in many cases made me cringe. What was it meant to do? However, there was also great gentleness in moments, particularly by the women with soft port de bras whilst manipulating the air, but in most others I was distracted by the preponderance of steps. There were steps in isolation, repeated sequences, mirrored sequences, sequences repeated to other characters. In addition, at moments there seemed to have been isolated quotes from the MacMillan choreography. Regardless, all in all it was an overload of choreography in places that really did not need it, almost as if the choreographer did not fully trust the music to carry the moment.

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great report!! THANK YOU!!

By the way, the guy who played Ashley Wilkes DID play Romeo in the big Hollywood movie, opposite Norma Shearer, which is (Despite having EVERYBODY too old), is still one of the very best RnJs ever, because RnJ were absolutely great.

I saw the same stars in Berkeley last year, and as you say, she and he were really lovely, and he was especially dreamy. which is the way it is in the play "With loves light wings did o'erperch these walls"

Morris should have cut the music.

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Romeo, whose name I will recall if only I had my program - where oh where is it, was a peculiarly gentle man, his bearing often reminding me of Dear Ashley Wilkes (for good or ill) off in world parallel to this one. However, as mystically and ecstatically connected as the young people were at first meeting, neither provided sufficient dramatic motivation to the audience for taking action in order to be together; instead, they were pulled and pushed in various directions, subordinate to the Needs of the Plot instead of the Dictates of Emotion.

Thank you for this review, emilienne. I missed R&J when it showed up in my neck of the woods last year, but my experience of recent works by Morris makes your review sound perfectly believable.

Ashley Wilkes was Leslie Howard, who often played such otherworldly types. These characters can get on your nerves, but no actor could do them quite so well.

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Noah Vinson is probably the dancer you saw dance Romeo.

His dancing has a remarkably fluid, floating quailty....

I have found my program, and indeed, Romeo was Noah Vinson. I still can't decipher his first scene with Friar Laurence - what was the connection between them?

emi

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I can't remember -- but from my memory of the play, they're the two "bookish" people in the town.... my recollection of Morris's ballet is that Friar Lawrence is less avuncular than he is in theplay, but just a little older than Romeo, and kind of a kindred spirit who became a monk....

I'm sorry you didn't like Juliet's mother -- in the cast I saw, she was A) a VERY good dancer, B) in love with her husband, and C) rather conventional in her expectations and hopes but affectionate, genuinely affectionate towards her daughter. In the first scene, Juliet and her mother danced together, it was a kind of mentoring dance of "You'll become a woman," and the mother was really happy for her daughter and simultaneously reliving that time in her own life -- it was really rich, since it was not invidiously suggesting that she was living through her daughter. In fact, I liked it better than ANY other version of that scene I've ever seen.

Most versions isolate the young lovers and make them emblemmatic of why society must be changed, "look how partiarchy/capitalism/Society is destroying the very flower of our youth...." The Soviet version was made that way, with Grasping Capitalism the enemy, the 60s version was ALSO made that way, with the generation gap and Colonialism being the enemy....

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I'm sorry you didn't like Juliet's mother -- in the cast I saw, she was A) a VERY good dancer, B) in love with her husband, and C) rather conventional in her expectations and hopes but affectionate, genuinely affectionate towards her daughter. In the first scene, Juliet and her mother danced together, it was a kind of mentoring dance of "You'll become a woman," and the mother was really happy for her daughter and simultaneously reliving that time in her own life -- it was really rich, since it was not invidiously suggesting that she was living through her daughter. In fact, I liked it better than ANY other version of that scene I've ever seen.

Paul -

I'm sorry if I gave that impression, but I did like her, particularly in that duet with Juliet. However, it was clear at least in Saturday's performance that she was mired in the power games and the relationships along with her husband. In addition, it seemed that her affection for Juliet was only equal, if not somewhat subordinate to those same wishes and desires.

It was a long performance. I did not mind it (as I'll admit here that I primarily went for the music) but in retrospect the music could have been trimmed to tighten the plot. As a dance drama, drama definitely lost out to the sheer quantity of steps. I was disappointed particularly because the naturalistic acting seemed so good in portions and would then be completely overwhelmed by choreography.

Romeo and Friar's relationship seemed more brotherly in this respect - when I meant in that baffling moment of connection, of Friar watching Romeo and Romeo staring back warily, was that the intensity seemed unwarranted so early on. As I said, metaphorically perhaps the Friar had already identified one of his ingredients for defusing the conflict in this fair Verona.

emi

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He should ABSOLUTELY have cut that music. There's WAY too much of it, especially if you're not going to make an epic out of it. Miniaturizing the civic dimensions -- those little doll-house buildings -- necessarily miniaturizes the production --

BUT he had the original version of the score in his hands, and that was the McGuffin for he whole production anyway, that this was the FIRST TIME the world had heard the original music -- which I agree with you, was FASCINATING to hear in its original scoring. You could hear the saxophone in Friar Lawrence's music, creating that weird druggy sound.... MANY instances of how wonderful it sounded could be adduced. but it doesn't work to USE it all.

Paul -

I'm sorry if I gave that impression, but I did like her, particularly in that duet with Juliet. However, it was clear at least in Saturday's performance that she was mired in the power games and the relationships along with her husband. In addition, it seemed that her affection for Juliet was only equal, if not somewhat subordinate to those same wishes and desires.

It was a long performance. I did not mind it (as I'll admit here that I primarily went for the music) but in retrospect the music could have been trimmed to tighten the plot. As a dance drama, drama definitely lost out to the sheer quantity of steps. I was disappointed particularly because the naturalistic acting seemed so good in portions and would then be completely overwhelmed by choreography.

Romeo and Friar's relationship seemed more brotherly in this respect - when I meant in that baffling moment of connection, of Friar watching Romeo and Romeo staring back warily, was that the intensity seemed unwarranted so early on. As I said, metaphorically perhaps the Friar had already identified one of his ingredients for defusing the conflict in this fair Verona.

emi

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That women were cast Tybalt and Mercutio and added a predictable but curiously heterosexual slant to those characters (and to those interactions with their male peers)?

If Mercutio is a woman, why is Romeo even bothering with Rosaline and Juliet?

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That women were cast Tybalt and Mercutio and added a predictable but curiously heterosexual slant to those characters (and to those interactions with their male peers)?

If Mercutio is a woman, why is Romeo even bothering with Rosaline and Juliet?

I should probably clarify: women were cast in the roles of Mercutio and Tybalt, but M and T are still male.

Good question though. Theories? ;)

emi

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