Tonight, before the 4th of July weekend kicks-in, I saw San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s production of Romeo and Juliet, i.e., this season’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. The stage seemed pretty similar in structure to last years except for the paint covering it. Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorites. Maybe I’m getting too picky, but the production seemed just ok to me (although two newspaper reviews I read after the fact loved it). The interesting thing is that the words and the drama are so strong in this play that my perceived production failings didn’t seem to lessen the impact of the play.
The actors delivered the lines very accurately and clearly, and there was a particular focus on emphasizing the rhyming of the lines. This made the rhythm of the lines seem a little strange to me. They also made the opening prologue into a group chant, which I didn’t really like. The other thing that bugged me was the casting of Tybalt and Benvolio with women. This seems to be a trend lately, and while they were adequate actors, it didn’t help the story for me. But despite these personal irritations, the dramatic climax still was very moving — a testimony to the power of the play. 119