We Review: Romeo & Juliet @ Balagan Theatre

Lisa Confehr and Kaitie Warren are the co-directors of Balagan Theatre's Romeo & Juliet, and they deserve co-praise for the hectic, breathless pace of this 16-actor-strong production. (Now through March 22nd, Thurs-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Tickets: $15 advance, $20 at the door.)

We don't need to recap the story of Romeo and Juliet, right? The direction of the Capulet party and the fight scenes is superb, edge-of-your-seat stuff, and we're not just saying that because we sat next to the pillar which turned out to be part of the set. (On the other hand, some of the bit parts are determined to go up to 11, which hardly seems necessary.)

Balagan is a small black box theatre, in the basement below Boom Noodle (what the...? Why'd our "b" key just freeze?), and rather than spend money on sets and costumes, it's all gone where it counts: the cast. Despite the bare-bones production values, the show has a solid, semi-pro atmosphere that separates it from fringe-y fooling around. And it is two times happy in its female lead: Allison Strickland has the talent to back up her glowing good looks, and creates a Juliet, both self-observant and spoiled, girlish and willful. Her body language speaks volumes--she leans toward Romeo until she's about to topple off her balcony, she pulls at her skirt out of both nerves and modesty.

It's funny, but despite all the trash-talking we've been hearing about the absurdly articulate high-schooler Juno, Shakespeare's Juliet sets the gold standard for incredible elocution, at just 13. Her father Capulet (Curtis Eastwood), dissuading Paris from proposing, underscores her age:

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

To which, good, sober-sided Paris (Sam Hagen) says: "Younger than she are happy mothers made." But the play is full of the kind of detail that brings another time, another climate into focus. One of our favorites in the cast is the Nurse (Rebecca Davis, who plays the part to salt-of-the-earth perfection), and who lets us in on the day from Juliet's toddler-hood when she made an accidental face-plant. Nurse's husband picked Juliet up:

'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'

Wow, that's creepy. It's like you're there, trying to figure out how to break the spell of inappropriate conversation.

As Romeo, Banton Foster nails some scenes and "acts" out others--he has a bad habit with longer passages of picking up speed on the downhill slope. It's odd because he has a really remarkable speaking voice, right up there with Radio Reader Dick Estell, and he could probably read the phone book profitably on street corners. That his Romeo is taught by a declamatory Friar Lawrence (Richard Clairmont, who finds a gruffer tone when it counts) makes sense.

Mark Carr is a charismatic, seething Tybalt, a warrior stuck fighting for social standing rather than anything useful, and he's matched by Ryan Higgins' wild-boy Mercutio, who displays a manic charm and pigheadedness of his own. Curtis Eastwood's Capulet shares in Tybalt's roguish magnetism, but gone to seed, the kind of guy who gets a little too drunk at his parties, laughs a little too loudly, and gets choked up watching Old School. More photos after the jump.