Some years ago, I was discussing modern-day Shakespeare adaptations with my father, and he mentioned that they often create plot holes in the text. "If Romeo and Juliet took place in an era with cellphones, they could avoid a lot of the confusion," he said.
Setting Shakespeare in modern times is very much en vogue these days. Regular visitors to The Shakespeare Theatre in DC know that the artistic leadership there has favored this approach for years now. It tends to work better with the comedies than the tragedies. I myself played Don Pedro earlier this year in a community theatre production of Much Ado About Nothing that was set in the early 1960s, featuring period music and reference to the burgeoning feminist movement. I'm hardly an impartial critic, of course, but I thought it went well. At its best, updated Shakespeare can draw in new viewers and help to demonstrate the timelessness of the Bard's themes. At its worst, it can prove an irritating distraction. The Folger Theatre's new Romeo and Juliet, the inaugural show of its 24-25 season, does a bit of both.
Probably no other of Shakespeare's works has been adapted more than the tale of the star-crossed lovers of Verona. The compelling story of young people from two opposing sides falling in love has been retold in many different settings-most famously among New York City street gangs in the multi Tony- and Academy Award-winning West Side Story. Indeed, the basic story has been reset in so many different historical and political contexts that it's easy to forget that in the original, Shakespeare, who likely had Protestant-Catholic tensions in his native England on his mind, does not even give the reason for the Montague-Capulet feud.
The Folger Theatre production, directed by Raymond Caldwell, is about as contemporary as possible. The theatre is walking distance from Capitol Hill and is scheduled to run through the weekend after the presidential election. As you have probably already guessed, in this outing, the feuding families represent opposite sides of the American political spectrum. Before the show, characters appear on flat screens in the theater as candidates giving speeches on border security, fentanyl overdoses, and other matters. The lighting turns blue when the Montagues are on stage, red when the Capulets are. Todd Scofield's Lord Capulet speaks with a Southern drawl and asks Siri to send invitations to the ball where Juliet (Caro Rivera Reyes) and Romeo (Cole Taylor) meet. Afterwards, she looks him up on Instagram(!) Push news notifications and scrolling headlines regularly appear on the screens. Brandon Carter's Friar Lawrence is a podcaster. Juliet's conversations with her mother, Lady Capulet (Fran Tapia) and Nurse (Luz Nicolas) are in Spanish, with subtitles appearing on one of the screens. These touches aren't fatal, but they are a bit distracting, and they don't particularly add much to the performance.
Somewhat in spite of the madcap modernity on display, the classic story still resonates due largely to the strength of the cast, particularly the leads. Taylor and Reyes are engaging performers, and thoroughly believable as the smitten lovers. And certain scenes pack a punch. I'm not sure why Caldwell elected to cast both Tybalt (Alina Collins Maldonado) and Mercutio (Giovanna Alcantara Drummond) as women, but the fateful fight between them just before intermission is a truly intense and harrowing scene, for which fight captain Gabriel Alejandro deserves full credit. The audience gasped audibly several times.
Your enjoyment of this production will likely depend on how willing you are to go along with the modern touches. Again, the cast performs commendably, reminding us why this story continues to resonate more than four centuries after its first performance.
As I left the theater, I walked past the Capitol Building, remembering when I was nearby, volunteering with a food distribution charity on the evening of January 5, 2021. I continued on to Union Station, passing many houses with political signs, the headquarters of the Heritage Foundation, and several homeless persons sleeping on benches or on the curb. How successfully the Folger production deals with America's current political polarization is up for debate, the fact of our polarization is not.
Romeo and Juliet runs two and a half hours with a 15 minute intermission.
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