Word: plays
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Among the Renaissance characteristics are balance and symmetry, which Romeo and Juliet has in superabundance. An early member of the canon and only the author's second attempt at tragedy, the play is at times literarily self-conscious and structurally too obvious in its symmetrical balance. Every idea has its complement: love vs. hate, day vs. night, patience vs. impetuosity, chastity vs. bawdry, and so on. Every character has its foil: Romeo and Mercutio, Juliet and Roasline, Benvolio and Tybalt, Friar Laurence and the Nurse. If it is not a supreme achievement, it is still a great play...
Events move swiftly and suddenly in this play, almost as fast as those of Macbeth. Over and above this, much can be done to cover up the structural shortcomings by maintaining a rapid and unbroken flow. Much has been done in this regard in the current Stratford production, under the direction of Jack Landau. Landau has wisely allowed only one intermission. And, using a somewhat trimmed text, he has on occasion overlapped the scenes; for instance, the Capulets' ball gets under way before Romeo and his pals on the street outside have finished their say. The resulting production...
...heroine of the play is surely the most captivating one Shakespeare ever created. And every actress wants a crack at the part at some time in her career. The American Shakespeare Festival is lucky to be enjoying the services of Inga Swenson; her Juliet is by far the greatest asset of this production, and, indeed, the finest Juliet I have ever seen...
...serious part for the Festival; and there is no reason to expect it to be definitive yet. He clearly has a fine Romeo within him, though. His diction is clear. He has no trouble making Romeo young enough--and young he must be: Romeo matures a little during the play's course, but he never does become a man. At present, however, Easton's Romeo is not enough in love--either with Juliet or with the words he speaks...
Both Smithers and Landau should be made to listen to the Queen Mab vocal scherzetto and orchestral scherzo from Berlioz' "dramatic symphony" Romeo and Juliet before Smithers sets foot on the Festival stage again. In fact, no director should essay this play until he has studied all of the Berlioz masterpiece, the only work based on Shakespeare's play that surpasses the original. Significantly, in his Sunday appraisal of this production, the New York Times' Brooks Atkinson was also moved to invoke the Berlioz work. Although he made some inaccurate statements about both Berlioz and his symphony, his basic point...