Theatrius
  • Now Playing
  • All Reviews
  • Writers
  • Reflections
  • Millennial Notes
  • Join Us
  • About Us
  • Search Icon

Theatrius

Theater Reviews—San Francisco and Beyond

“Romeo & Juliet” Begs Us to Find Common Ground—Streaming Globe, UK

“Romeo & Juliet” Begs Us to Find Common Ground—Streaming Globe, UK

November 16, 2020 Abby Tozer

Millennial Notes

Michael Oakley Highlights Comedy in Tragedy

by Abby Tozer

Clad in tight yellow pants, Mercutio (light footed, sharp-tongued Ned Derrington) romps through London’s beautiful and flexible Globe Theatre, tantalizing us with youthful exuberance.  In a breakneck 90 minutes, Director Michael Oakley’s “Romeo and Juliet” features updated comedy and hip-hop rhythms to emphasize the transience, joy, and unpredictability of these young lives.

In this 2019 Globe production, we swim in a teenage festival of silky, silvery, white, and black flowing costumes—more goth and punk than Elizabethan. With hot dance rhythms and Rap music, the rowdy teen ensemble puts youthful hopes center stage.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, U.K.

Oakley’s diverse, energetic production cries out to dangerous America, where jogging in your neighborhood can instantly transform joy to tragedy. The brutal murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery while out running in Glynn County, Georgia, shows how Black citizens live each day on a knife’s edge. The multi-ethnic teens in The Globe’s “R&J” walk that edge, too.

The Globe production combines dystopian mix of traditional and modern: including Tik Tok style dance, Grecian patterned silk shirts, purple pleather pants, and glowing medieval iconography. Oakley provides non-stop spectacle swirling around our “star-crossed” lovers.  The 400-year-old Elizabethan theater sets off the lovers’ idealism—rather like Greta Thunberg running into the Orange One at the U.N.

Nathan Welsh (Romeo) & Shalisha James-Davis (Benvolio)

Mercutio creates surprise sexual tension with the brazen Nurse (charming Debbie Chazen). He flips a pair of drumsticks from his belt at the “prick of noon,” hypnotizing Nurse and Globe with slapstick comedy.

After his playful scramble with Tybalt (fiercely feminine Ayoola Smith), Mercutio cockily confides, “I am hurt!” Over roars of laughter, he whispers, “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man!” Mirroring his mockery, we are swept up in laughter—while Mercutio expires in front of our eyes.  Oakley has so successfully distracted us that we are blind to a man taking his last breath.

Ned Derrington (Mercutio)

This “R&J” makes us complicit in Mercutio’s murder, in the same way we are complicit with the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many others. The production offers a window into the daily defenses of public executions in the news.

Oakley paints a harrowing picture of willful public blindness, leading to the devaluation of life.

Jeff Alexander (Friar Laurence)

From fires to pandemic, we are all so much “alike in dignity.” By opening our eyes to the tragedy and comedy in “R&J,” we may soften our collective hearts. This enthusiastic, youthful production brings Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet back to join Black Lives Matter, today.

We can learn from the “untimely death” that Oakley touchingly paints with vibrant youthful display.  London’s Globe Theatre proves that our unifying force, finally, is not death, but empathy. Let’s go to Shakespeare’s Globe–for joy and healing, too.

“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, directed by Michael Oakley, at Shakespeare’s Globe, U.K.–Streaming at: TheGlobe.UK – to February 28, 2021.

Cast: Charlotte Beaumont, Stuart Bowman, Debbie Chazen, Christopher Chung, Ned Derrington, Hermione Gulliford, Shalisha James-Davis, Ayoola Smart, Nathan Welsh, and Jeff Alexander.

Banner photo: Charlotte Beaumont (Juliet) & Nathan Welsh (Romeo) at The Globe


Plays

Post navigation

NEXT
“Art” Exposes Perils of Male Friendship—Streaming S.F. Playhouse
PREVIOUS
“Unstable Connection” Paves Path for ‘Virtual’ Activists—Streaming CAL
Comments are closed.

Menu

  • Now Playing
  • All Reviews
  • Writers
  • Reflections
  • Millennial Notes
  • Join Us
  • About Us

BLM

Black Lives Matter

Current Shows

  • “Strange Courtesies” Climaxes Black History Month—Streaming The Stage
  • “Lone Mountain” Tour Reveals Gay Side—Streaming Rhino
  • “Binding Ties” Shines Migrant Stories on Rail Station—Streaming Oakland
  • “Smithtown” Awakes Us to Tech Tragedy—Streaming Key West
  • “Fairfield” Elementary Unhinged over Black History—Streaming The Pear
  • “warplay” on the Edge of Fear and Love—Streaming NCTC
  • “The Catastrophist” Puts Prophecy under Microscope—Streaming Marin
  • >> Streaming Theater >> Update: January 20
  • “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” Casts Jazz Age Spell—Streaming Netflix
  • “The Human Ounce” Assesses Art and the Artist—Streaming Central Works
  • “Curly Fries” Softens Torments of Pandemic Life—Streaming CAL
  • “I Am Sending You the Sacred Face”: A Tour de Force from East Village Closet—Streaming TiQ
  • “Haunting of Alice Bowles” Merges Murder & Macabre—Streaming Original, UK
  • “Fully Committed” Exposes Elite Abuse of Essential Workers—Streaming Los Altos Stage
  • “Holiday Sauce…Pandemic!” Stirs Sex into “O Holy Night”—Streaming SF Curran

About us:

If you want to see the best plays & performances around the San Francisco Bay or beyond, read our reviews. We promise to give you a true report on the best shows.
Bay Area Critics Circle

Barry David Horwitz, Editor of Theatrius, is a Voting Member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle, SFBATCC. Follow us on: facebook.com

Subscribe for upcoming reviews!
Loading
© 2021   All Rights Reserved.