Opera House Arts has for many years done a splendid
job of staging Shakespeare’s plays in ways that open them up beautifully to
people who are seeing them for the first time, and making them feel new to people who
have seen and read them many times before.
This summer’s Shakepeare in Stonington, Romeo and
Juliet, was one of their best. The production emphasized the tragedy over the
romance, spotlighting the violence of the emotions and the extravagance of the
language. The play is filled with
opposites – life and death, dark and light, longing
and despair, love and hate: “My only love, sprung from my only hate!”
All the characters, not just the star-crossed
lovers, are tossed and turned by
warring passions, like a storm at sea. The gorgeous language in the love scenes
–“Parting is such sweet sorrow”, “It is the nightingale” -- is counterbalanced
by the explosive moments of irrational hatred -- Romeo’s violent killing of his
rival in the tomb, Juliet’s father’s shocking outburst of rage when she refuses
to marry the man he has chosen: “Graze where you will, you shall not house
with me!”
Within minimal sets and the same actors playing
several roles, the Shakespeare in Stonington players made the play feel very real and poignant, a tragic reflection on all the wars and conflicts going on all over the world right now.
The ending of this production was exceptionally
moving and profound. In the play, the fathers of Romeo and Juliet shake hands
and call each other “Brother” as a sign of reconciliation.
In this production, it is the mothers who drape
themselves, weeping, each over her own child, and then slowly, almost reluctantly,
reach across Romeo and Juliet's dead bodies to hold hands. When Romeo’s mother sorrowfully calls Juliet’s mother “Sister!” and clasps her outstretched hand, the
play becomes a passionate prayer for peace.
Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare in Stonington
July 3- 19, 2014 at the Stonington Opera House
Stonington, Maine
Opera House Arts
