Discover Walla Walla

"Romeo and Juliet", William Shakespeare's love story for the ages, has been modernized countless times, each director trying to put it into a context that hopefully provides new meaning to the simple but heart wrenching tale that has been the standard for love stories ever since the old bard brought it to the stage.

Whitman College's modernization of "R & J", which just finished its run at Harper Joy Theatre, utilized an urban setting of modern culture mingling with themes from "West Side Story." The prominent part of the set consisted mostly of a cold city street with concrete walls, ramps and porches; even Juliet's window tower was grey concrete. And the fight scenes between the Montagues and the Capulets involved switch blades and the darting, almost dancing choreography reminiscent of "West Side."

The Capulet boys wore tight white short-sleeved dress shirts rolled up to show their biceps, accented with solid black ties, grey cargo pants and black boots. Father Capulet wore a dashing tailored suit and the women sprightly colored dresses circa the early 60's. Paris was portrayed as a preppie who could have walked right off the Princeton campus yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Montague clan resembled a present-day skateboard posse with hats to the back, unbuttoned, loose fitting plaid shirts and rainbow colored sneakers, all the while riding and jumping over the stage on their skateboards. Although the production, for the most part, stayed with the old English originally penned by Shakespeare, there were breaks in dialogue where characters articulated current slang terms along with complete breaks in character, as when one of the Montague clan performed a skateboard jump which drew "whoops and howls" akin to what you hear from teenagers on the street today. These seemed to tickle most the students in the audience. 

As I sat in my seat, taking in this interpretation of old Willie's love story, it occurred to me, again, that it truly is a timeless tale. Whether you modernize Capulet's' gala with a disc-jockey and modern dance music, characters dirty dancing to delight, as was the case with Whitman's production, or you choose to remain completely true to the original script, the tragedy and the reality of "R & J" still strongly resonates. The eternal issue of outside forces ruining the purist form of love is as true today as it was back in the Shakespeare's time, be those outside forces a family feud, ethnicity, cultural status, etc.

Performing Shakespeare is the ultimate acting challenge for even the most veteran thespians. Thus, it is a monumental task for young college actors; and as is the case with any college production of Shakespeare, some of the actors in Whitman's effort grasped their lines much better than others. But a performer's lack of command did not diminish this production; what did, though, were its acoustical problems. Many patrons during the intermission complained about their inability to hear the dialogue clearly, whether from actors not facing the audience or speaking much too rapidly, or the background music that often drowned out the performers. Many times, also, characters were pouncing or running across a set that seemed to reverberate like loose planks on a deck.

Nonetheless, Whitman's production of "R & J" provided a new and creative look into the play and allowed several young actors the opportunity to share their wares and make this author reminisce a little about his own feelings of true love.

-Andrew Holt