Romeo + Juliet @ The Met in Downtown LA
The Kiss - Francesco Hayez
After my virgin expedition into the Los Angeles theatre scene on Valentine’s Day, I went to see Romeo and Juliet at The Met Theater, downtown. After spending years seeing Shakespeare “adapted for a modern audience” (completely unnecessarily), I was relieved this was intended to be more traditional. That’s what made me jump at these tickets in the first place, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I’m a student of literature and therefore pretty fussy when it comes to hearing it performed. Juliet (Megan Goodchild) was lovely, and Romeo (Frederik Hamel) was suitably Mark-Hamilton-in-Star-Wars to my liking, to convey the utter teenage madness and angst the characters must have gone through to be so in love at the age of 13. It takes a particular talent to perform Shakespeare in a manner that communicates meaning, especially if the general audience isn’t going to know the vocabulary. Friar Lawrence in particular carried this off beautifully. (Actor’s name & link to follow- apologies!)Call me biased, but a projected and expressive English accent is still the best way to hear Shakespeare any day.
In fact, I want to see more of this guy. Bring him back as Richard III or Lear and show people how rivetingly powerful Shakespeare can be. Mercutio (Michael Matthys) was great, but Mercutio is hard to do wrong, really. Back to being an English student: I tend to think of him as a vulgar favorite character-of-choice for those not used to thinking of Shakespeare as crude or funny. That said, I really appreciated his delivery of the Queen Mab speech. Matthys’ performance there was well-timed, articulate and clever. It was my impression that overall, all of the actors had spent a reasonable amount of time trying to personally understand the beautiful lines, and never fell into the temptation of repeating Baz Lurhman’s R+J movie of 1996 (that had simply stellar delivery in my opinion).
The set was a cute rendition of the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London. (I know because I visited it last year before I traded in London living for sunny Californian skies thatarenotsosunnytodayboohiss, permanently.) Instead of a horoscope on the ceiling, there were simple stars on a navy background. But the thick pillars were there, and the doors, which were great because I think the entrances and exits were pretty handy for the traditional performance style. I wish they’d spent more of their budget on the balcony itself. As a central part of the rightly-named “Balcony Scene”, poor Juliet risked her life climbing up and down the scaffolding, only to have nothing to lean against to “Ay, me!” herself. I worried for her while I was supposed to be watching another scene.
I can’t rightfully say why they cut the prologue out. Perhaps they figured the audience would already know that Romeo and Juliet were doomed. But it’s such a beautiful prologue, why wouldn’t you keep it in? Nobody bit any thumbs at each other either, and I missed that. But these are my only criticisms – I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. The costumes were perfect. I loves how Juliet’s ensembles were simple, versatile (a jacket thrown over her nightdress, and she’s an instant Princess…).
I’m excited and intrigued by each adaptation of the timing of Juliet’s awakening to Romeo’s death. I’ve seen their double suicides done simultaneously, moments before Romeo kicks it (some distance outside of Romeo’s concentration on the vial of poison), moments after he’s done for – you name it. But, oh boy, this was a good one. I won’t ruin the interpretation, as that would ruin the ending for connoisseurs of the play, so suffice to say I recommend it.
The Met is in downtown Los Angeles, with valet parking around the corner. The theater itself is not a glamorous building, but just right for a play like this. The cost of the show is $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors (and well worth it! Have I mentioned this yet? Go see it!) Altogether, this was a very fun experience for me. I would recommend it to anyone in the mood for a good night out!
