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Take heart, Romeo & Juliet can be saved from Baz Luhrman and other melodramatic acts that have turned Shakespeare into a cliche. Four Humors Theater makes a wonderful case for the comic awkwardness of young love in their current production directed by Jason Ballweber, a pearl of a clown in his own right.
Set in lengthways down the Bedlam’s playing space, the stage is bookended by whimsical houses, an evocation of a Twin Cities alleyway that does away with pretense of dramatic over-staging. With the audience seated on both sides of the action, the actors all engaged the crowd. Jason Bohon as a wide-eyed and gangly Romeo looks to us for encouragement and advice on how to approach his Juliet. He and she, sprightly played by Elise Langer, turn the courtship into a flight of fancy of stuttering, patter and exquisite pratfalls, bringing such a lightness and modern sensibility you want to double date with them, just for the fun of the conversation.
The quick pace of the courtship is aided along by characters who often get second stringer treatment, but here are well-rounded and get belly laughs; Sara Richardson as an airy and sweet Benvolio, and Kimberly Richardson in an inspired turn plays the crotchety, senile and bawdy Nurse. Under the light touch of Ballweber’s direction, the play fully forms before the darkness in the turn of fortune’s wheel.
The lack of pretense and simple, spot-on humor of the first half carries over to the second, when all is not sweetness and light. The pathos established through the open generosity means that the ending truly is a “most lamentable tragedy” and cathartically hopeful, even in deep despond. Four Humors pull off an exaltation of theatre—classic and modern, timeless and present, comic, oh so comic, and ultimately, a tragedy that carries with it the bitterest sweet memories.
Romeo and Juliet runs May 15 & 16 at 8:00pm and May 17 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm.
Location Info:
Bedlam Theatre
Artist Info: Four Humors Theater
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