“Romeo and Juliet” contains some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful love poetry, but it’s easy for cynics to dismiss the lovesick teenagers as simply young and foolish. I’ve been guilty of this. After all, Juliet is only 13 in the original text. But in Oak Park Festival Theatre’s current production, director Peter G. Andersen poses a straightforward solution: aging Juliet up to nearly 18. Of course, 17 is still a shockingly young age to elope, but this change encourages the audience to take the eloquent lovers more seriously from the start.
In another break from tradition, Juliet is not merely a lofty idol during the famous balcony scene. Before Romeo (August Forman) ever attempts to climb up to her, she comes down to him, putting them on equal footing. This Juliet, as played by Rachel J. Jones, is vivacious, confident and brave — though still at the mercy of a hardhearted patriarch.
Juliet’s father, Capulet (Josh Carpenter), is one party to a longstanding feud with the Montagues, Romeo’s family. Many productions focus on the brawls between the youths of the two factions, but Capulet comes off as the most dangerous figure here. His attempt to force Juliet into an unwanted marriage with Paris (Jason Pavlovich) is a brutal scene. Emphasizing the gendered power gap, it’s clear that Lady Capulet (Talia Langman) doesn’t support his harsh approach but has little sway over her angry husband.
Before Juliet reaches this crisis, the well-known love story begins when she meets Romeo at a party. Forman, a nonbinary actor, plays Romeo with a swagger tempered by an underlying note of insecurity, which comes through in his susceptibility to the good-natured teasing of Benvolio (Drew Bos) and Mercutio (Lucas Prizant). Of course, Romeo deserves some ribbing. We first meet him pining over his unrequited love for Rosaline, but he soon transfers his affections on first sight to Juliet, Rosaline’s cousin.
Taylor Pfenning’s costume designs give Romeo a bit of a Harry Styles look. At the party, Forman wears combat boots and fatigue-style pants with a gold leather jacket over a sparkling, transparent tank top. Black nail polish and a leaf-patterned gold headband complete the look. Juliet mostly wears dresses in soft lavender or pink, and the couple’s ensembles pair well under Devin Cameron’s dreamy lighting in the balcony scene.
Jones and Forman speak Shakespeare’s language fluidly, and the play’s abundant celestial imagery stands out in the open-air setting, even though the stars aren’t too visible in Oak Park. Juliet’s invocation of the “gentle night” takes on chilling prescience when she pleads, “Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, / Take him and cut him out in little stars, / And he will make the face of heaven so fine, / That all the world will be in love with night, / And pay no worship to the garish sun.” Dark stuff, wrapped in gorgeous verse.
As the walls of parental repression and a bloody feud close in on the couple, a desperate Juliet follows the advice of Friar Laurence (Huy Nguyen) to escape with Romeo by faking her own death, a plan that goes awry through maddening miscommunication. Andersen’s staging of the lovers’ death scene is especially poignant. Juliet wakes from her induced slumber seconds before Romeo’s poison takes hold, making their last kiss a tantalizing glimpse of hope before tragedy sets in. When the guilt-stricken Capulet makes peace with his enemy, Montague (Belinda Bremner), his mournful description of the dead couple — “Poor sacrifices of our enmity!” — leaves a powerful final impression.
Unfortunately, this mood was broken by the choice to have Forman deliver the post-show requests for attendees to pick up their trash, spread the word about the production and, if able, donate to the nonprofit theater company. I fully understand the need for such announcements but think any other messenger than one of the two lead actors would be better. Let the audience suspend their disbelief a little longer.
Some of the play’s comedic elements also didn’t land for me, but it’s more important to buy into the love story and the hopeless situation that drives Romeo and Juliet to their deaths. And these worked better than I’ve seen in a while. It was easy to feel invested in this more mature Juliet and her Romeo, crushed under the weight of familial and societal forces.
Review: “Romeo and Juliet” (3 stars)
When: Through August 17
Where: Austin Gardens, 167 Forest Ave., Oak Park
Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Tickets: $38 (children under 12 free; pay what you will walk-up tickets available at any Wednesday or Thursday performance); 708-300-9396 and www.oakparkfestival.com
