The vision of star-crossed lovers is at the heart of this fall’s American Repertory Theater’s production of “Romeo and Juliet,” a revival of the timeless tragedy. Directed by Diane Paulus, the play will explore the power and beauty of Shakespeare’s language. This take on the classic story, faithful to the original script, is not tied to a specific historical period. The production draws its inspiration from the bond between the title characters, rather than the divisions and societal ills that keep them apart. The production will run August 31 through October 6.
Paulus, artistic director of ART, stressed that it was important to her to tell the couple’s feelings. “They are both these highly evolved poetic souls,” she said. “We talked a lot about the visions that Romeo and Juliet have. They have premonitions, almost like prophecies. They are these two young people who have a vision of where the world is going for them and where the world could go. In many ways, they are determined not to repeat the path of their parents or the generations before them.”
Shakespeare’s play is set in Verona, a city plagued by the rivalry between two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. When young Romeo and Juliet, born into feuding families, meet at a party, the orbits of the planets seem to change. The two meet in secret and plan to marry, but their dreams are quickly turned upside down by a series of events that lead to strife and misfortune.
The story is interpreted with evocative and poignant original music by Alexandre Dai Castaing. The characters, said choreographer and movement director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, are wonderfully perceptive, sensitive and aware, making them perhaps the most mature figures in the story. Their scenes are imbued with a body language that seems almost sculptural, said Cherkaoui, who brought a complex movement vocabulary even to moments that don’t involve dancing. Cherkaoui has worked with Beyoncé and Madonna and is currently ballet director of Le Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland. He most recently collaborated with Paulus on the American Repertory Theater’s production of the musical “Jagged Little Pill.”
“With very simple gestures, Juliet shows what is going on in her head. She is an artist, so there is something artistic about her movements. Romeo has an unconventional soul,” Cherkaoui said. “Actors really understand intention. Dancers are used to working from the outside in, and actors have to know what is going on inside them. … There is an incredible precision that I did not expect from actors. I thought they would be rougher, but they are very, very detailed.”
Rudy Pankow, known for his role in the Netflix teen drama series Outer Banks, described exploring the character of Romeo as a journey. He identified moments of transformation in Romeo, where he begins in a hopeful state, feels “baptized” as a new person, and becomes increasingly tormented toward the end of the play. In his scenes with Emilia Suárez’s Juliet, the two are often playful, challenging each other and cracking jokes. Pankow asked himself many questions as he worked to figure out Romeo’s identity.
“Who is this character, who is he? – Romeo wrestles with that very question throughout the play until he and Juliet really find each other. Then he finds himself,” Pankow said. “Romeo is a real feeler: ‘I want to find out the truth about who I am.’ So many people shy away from asking those questions because sometimes it’s really scary to admit who you are. He’s a golden character because he really recognizes his flaws, how he doesn’t want to have those flaws and how he wants to fix them.”
Paul said that in many ways Juliet does not have the same freedom as Romeo; she is subject to her father’s decisions. For this reason, her discovery of her own determination within a set of societal and familial constraints is all the more striking. Suárez spoke of the character traits she recognized while reading Shakespeare’s language, her intelligence, bravery, and drive. At times Juliet’s language is childlike, such as when she asks that Romeo be “divided into little stars” so that the world can find the night glorious. As she studied the text, Suárez paid careful attention to cadence, finding passages where Juliet breaks the rhythm of her own speech and connecting them to her inner turmoil. As the play progresses, she realizes a deeper sense of who she is and finds joy and meaning in a tense world.
Ultimately, the connection Juliet forms with Romeo, often described in heavenly terms as a heightened reality, offers a kind of recognition.
“They meet each other and feel like they know each other,” Suárez said. “They feel like they see each other. That gives them a sense of security that their home never gave them.”
“Romeo and Juliet” runs from August 31 to October 6 at the American Repertory Theater.
