Star-Crossed Lovers Play Under The Stars
By Adam Paul
The Bulletin
Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007

Flanked by children gleefully running around a playscape and a few men playing football, a young man leans upon a rusty metal drum, looks up at a young lady and claims lovingly, "and Juliet is the sun." Attired in blue athletic shorts and a yellow T-shirt (not his formal costume), our Romeo took the outdoor stage in Clark Park Monday night for a rehearsal of this summer's production of Shakespeare in Clark Park.

"Romeo and Juliet," which begins tonight at 7 p.m., will run every day at the same time until Sunday. The play takes place in the "bowl" of Clark Park - a large, concave open space at the corner of 43rd Street and Chester Avenue. All shows are free, and interested attendees are encouraged to bring blankets or chairs. Shows may be cancelled due to weather.

The production is the second year of Shakespeare in Clark, following last year's successful run of "Twelfth Night." Director Tom Reing returns from that production to take the helm this year. When asked why the company chose "Romeo and Juliet," Reing replied that "there is a lot of violence in Verona in the story. It's a feud between two families but the whole community is affected by it and I think that speaks to us in Philadelphia today.".

An interruption in last night's rehearsal proved Reing's observation. Just as Juliet (Marla Burkholder) moved to fake her death with an elixir, a local man wandered on to stage and interrupted the scene. As play staff asked the man to leave, a man with his dog approached and yelled at the man for being "socially inappropriate." A shouting match ensued, where the first man claimed to have lived in the neighborhood "my whole life" and found the play intrusive. The altercation, looking eerily like the confrontation between Mercutio and Tybalt a few scenes before, concluded when the two men were separated by police.

Interruptions aside, the players made excellent use of the space. The sparse stage design, consisting of a two-tiered scaffolding with a few metal drums to the side and fronted by a few cinder blocks, remains unobtrusive within the park. Whitney Estrin, the production's managing director, said the company's goal was use the surroundings and "try to not put a stage on the park."

Given the large space surrounding the stage, entrances and exits have to occur long before a character begins to speak. While it can be distracting, Romeo, played by Conrad Ricamora, said he likes that the audience can see everything. "A lot of things in theater seem mysterious to the audience. Here there is no mystery. I like the honesty that's built into it."

The production captures the youthful excitement of the lovers. Romeo approaches Juliet's terrace with smitten anxiety that makes their love seem real and fragile. Even Juliet's nurse, often cast as an old woman, is here played more as a caring, yet chiding, sister, than an aged source of marital advice.

The lovers appear all too aware that, despite their love, they could easily fail to secure it. Long before Juliet embraces her "happy dagger," unease permeates the play. In different scenes, both Romeo and Juliet cry on their knees at almost the same spot on stage, seeming to link the pair even when they are separated. The lover's demise appears driven less by undelivered post than by their own preconception that their love must prove fatal.

Yet the speed of the acting keeps the play from becoming contemplative. Mercutio, whose comedy greatly enhances the play, announces his "plague upon both your houses" turned away from the audience and quickly dies, rather than dragging out a prolonged passing. Taking about two and half hours to show, the play fits well into the declining twilight. The final scene in the crypt plays out after sunset, light only by stars and stage lights.

This year's "Romeo and Juliet" proves a fun rendition of the play. By embracing youth, the play manages to seem neither rushed nor a dramatic exercise. While adhering to the convention, the players' troubles are presented as all too possible today.