Word: benvolio
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...tone deaf, it seems to me. He has no sense of the music of verse." Al though Rowse usually retains the rhythm of Shakespeare's lines, some of his substitutions change it altogether. "We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf," says Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet; in Rowse's version he says "blindfolded," which adds an awkward syllable...
While this purist attitude strains the cast and audience endurance to the limit, it somehow manages not to spill over. With the unfortunate exception of Romeo's sidekicks Benvolio and Mercutio (Kate Levin and Jeannie Affelder), almost everyone -- even the servants saddled with endless forced Elizabethan puns --manage to speak in natural tones. Silver as Juliet stands out particularly in this respect, somehow projecting both the terrified innocence of a thirteen-year old and, gradually, the woman's depth of commitment and tragedy Few Juliet's have matured so convincingly...
...similar tendency towards the personal trademark mars Rauch's enigmatic final scene, as one mute autumn leaf flutters slowly out of the overhead grill. But interestingly, a Mercutio and Benvolio, and their depiction as Romeo's childhood pals--avoids this tendency altogether. The women succeed, despite occasional awkwardness, precisely because their gender attracts no notice and the audience soon responds in kind...