Given that a feud between their families is what turns "Romeo and Juliet" into a tragedy, it's a standard playwright's device to put the characters into a different time frame. So Leonard Bernstein turned them into rival New York gangs. And the Black Rep did it a few months ago in a city like St. Louis. I've seen it with rival Chicago bootleggers in the 1920s. Given its own heritage, the New Jewish Theatre decided to try it with Jews and Arabs, setting it in early 1948, just as Israel became a state. The play opened last night at the Missouri History Museum and will run through May 2.
Robin Weatherall, his English birth making him a potential descendant of William Shakespeare, did the adaptation and directed, with more success in the latter department. His plot hangs up in several areas, especially on religion. The program names Montagues (Romeo's side) as Jews, and Capulets (Juliet's family) as Arabs, immediately thrusting us into an apples vs. oranges situation. Arabs have many religions. That also negates Shakespeare's use of the Priest as a go-between and mediator, which worked among Catholics in the original, but fails badly here with Kevin Beyer as a British Army chaplain, who would be trusted by neither side.
Weatherall's program notes cite the Holocaust, with Mercutio as a survivor, but that has to advance Romeo's age by several years (Juliet is now 16, rather than 13). But I heard no character discuss, or even mention, the Holocaust. The closest reference I saw was some blue marks on Brooke Edwards' arm, which might have indicated a concentration camp identification tattoo. The program refers to Hagganah and the Irgun, conflicting groups of Jewish activists, but the actors don't bring it up. Granted, Shakespeare didn't mention 20th-century history much, either, but as long as we're adapting, even a passing reference would have helped.
And while we're nit-picking, the printed program, like too many of its fellows at too many St. Louis theaters these days, has no reference to time and place except to tell us we're in Jerusalem between December 1947 and March 1948. But the action takes place in many locations over the course of those months, and the single-set space, with only an occasional chair or table for dressing, doesn't provide for the little things that help an audience know where it is. Michael Perkins' video provides an introductory backdrop and helps identify some complementary history of the period.
Rusty and Meg Rodd Gunther, married off stage, too, are a cute couple in the title roles, and she spends a lot more time in a teddy than do most Juliets. Given the old vaudeville routine, "I played Shakespeare," "Who won?" the Gunthers came out with a narrow victory. Edwards was passionate and powerful as Mercutio, and Weatherall's idea of casting a woman in the role worked satisfactorily. She and Charlie Barron, a good Tybalt, engaged in a couple of splendid fights, excellently choreographed by Lou Bird. B. Weller stood out as Capulet, delivering a tongue-lashing worthy of Sergeant Snorkel when his daughter turns down Paris in favor of Romeo, but he ran out of excoriation a few scenes later when he responded with a rather mild "Alas," on discovering she was dead. Aaron Orion Baker is a properly prissy, wimpy Paris, and Aarya Sara Locker was fine as Nurse, who is Juliet's only real advocate, but she, like all the women, spent too much time weeping and wailing very loudly. Amy Loui impressed as Lady Capulet.
Dunsi Dai's three-level set was an excellent, three-dimensional use of space, and Glenn Dunn's lights emphasized the action properly.
The run marks the end of what Kathleen Sitzer, artistic director, has termed the "wandering" Jewish theater. The new, improved and larger space at the JCC will be ready for the group's next production, "Laughter on the 23rd Floor," in June.
"Romeo and Juliet," a production of the New Jewish Theatre at the Missouri History Museum, through May 2
–Joe