By Nadine Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 12, 2014
Imagine if Mad Max was an angsty teenage love story told through poetry. With dubstep.
That’s UFV Theatre’s gritty, post-apocalyptic take on Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s most famous romantic tragedy. It’s about as far from the traditional Renaissance love story as you’ve ever seen it — but the setting works. It works well.
With your very first step into the theatre, there’s a sense of moving forward into a stranger, darker time. The air is thick and smoky, and bits of old netting, grimy rags, and rusty scrap metal are strung across the walls and railings. Several enormous two-storey metal scaffolds on wheels loom in the corners of the stage, waiting to be rearranged as the scenes change. The atmosphere is grungy, murky, and irresistibly mysterious.
With a set like this it’s hard not to get carried away into the fantasy, and the enthusiasm of UFV’s theatre students is infectious. You can tell they’re having fun on the stage. Eli Funk and Rae MacEachern-Eastwood, who play Romeo and Juliet, have a rare and sparkling chemistry, and their kisses are so intimate, they’re almost pornographic. Juliet is effervescent and a little whiny, just as she ought to be, and Funk gives a straight but strong performance as Romeo. The supporting cast shines, too; Ashlyn Tegg’s butch and boisterous Mercutio steals every scene, Geneva Perkins’ Nurse provides most of the play’s rare gems of comic relief, and Dylan Schroeder’s pale, dead-eyed Paris oozes a deathly sort of sleaze that makes you wonder just what his intentions are with tender young Juliet.
Not only is this production well-cast, it’s well-dressed. Gas masks, face paint, leather, and tattoos lend a punky aesthetic to this ruined, futuristic universe, the cause of which is left up to our imaginations to explain. Costume designer Catrina Jackson has also succeeded in showing a distinct class difference between the two feuding families: the Montagues are scruffy street ruffians in muddy combat boots and ragged, earthy vests, while the rich Capulets are dominatrix-glam in black leather, luxe fabrics, and sleek, bondage-inspired corsets, buckles, and chains.
And did I mention the weapons? With certified fight director Paul Gélineau at the helm, this production doesn’t lack action. We move from massive, pounding dance scenes, featuring the entire cast of leather-clad actors grinding on each other to the heavy thump of dubstep, into all-out melees featuring machetes, shivs, daggers, spiked baseball bats, and a mysterious but nasty-looking metal hook fixed to a pole. The play is worth watching just for the beautifully-choreographed brawls, especially the raw, dirty, and surprisingly realistic duel between Romeo and Tybalt.
In case you couldn’t already tell, this show is definitely not for kids — not just because of the sexy dancing and violence, but because frankly, it’s pretty damn spooky. The random bloodcurdling shrieks, white faces suddenly illuminated by flashlight beams, and moody, atmospheric music create an ominous chill that never really leaves, even in the sweetest moments between the young lovers. The play is also narrated by the ghostly character of Fate, a tiny wraithlike girl in an old-fashioned lace gown, who crawls on her belly out of the darkness to deliver the play’s famous prologue and ending lines. Just before critical plot points, she glides across the darkened stage with peals of childish laughter that can only be described as downright creepy.
The line delivery goes quickly as the actors attempt to cram Shakespeare’s wordy rhetoric into a two-hour time slot, so anyone who’s not already familiar with the script might have difficulty following the swiftly-delivered puns and flowery, metaphorical language. But otherwise, Gélineau’s adaptation is an original, startling, and thoroughly entertaining take on Shakespeare — no less than we’ve come to expect from UFV Theatre. Come for the knife fights, stay for the acting. But maybe think about leaving your grandma home for this one.
