ROMEO AND JULIET. To 9 December.
London
ROMEO AND JULIET
by William Shakespeare
Barbican (Pit) To 9 December 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm
Runs 1hr 40min No interval
TICKETS: 0845 120 7511
www.barbican.org.uk (reduced booking fee online)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 November
Production that cuts the cackle and gets beneath the bedsheets.
Romeo and Juliet: a great idea worked-out over 3+ hours which end unsatisfactorily as neither comedy nor tragedy. There’s fine poetry but a lot of tedious action, and, Juliet apart, not a single interesting character. Friar Laurence? He bores for Verona. Juliet’s Nurse? Oh, please.
And we hardly get to meet one of the feuding dynasties, the Montagues. Korean director Oh Tae-Suk, known as Master Oh, is something of an icon – possibly the icon of modern Korean theatre. And his Romeo is modern in approach, though his Mokhwa Repertory Company’s production in London suggests strong traditions of colour and dance behind this show.
The proliferation of Maidens and Friends suggests Oh is looking to fill out the scene; he enacts the reason why the true account of Juliet’s ‘death’ doesn’t reach Romeo in time, even though he drastically reduces the length. There are several benefits.
The action has a filmic pace, the traditional stick fights achieve a prominence that make each death significant, without the need for that teenage poser Mercutio to go on and on. Queen Mab is dead; thank god.
A feature of Master Oh’s style, apparently, is that actors constantly address the audience, rather than facing each other. How that’d work in Chekhov remains (possibly) to be seen. In R & J it works a treat. The Nurse, whirling on, smiling energetically, then departing like a Dalek on well-oiled wheels is thankfully no longer a chance for some mature performer to dispose of an over-stocked repertoire of vocal mannerisms and grimaces.
What’s more, Oh refuses the final peacemaking (Shakespeare handled the idea of coming to one’s senses too late much better in A Winter’s Tale). His Prince Escalus is about as ineffectual as his namesake in Measure for Measure while the conflict continues around him to the end.
With an active Romeo and Juliet, whose bedtime meeting is worked out as he searches for her and they join together under a huge, floor-covering sheet, this is a lithe production that keeps a narrative pulse while giving time for a range of emotions to emerge with well-styled clarity.
Friar Laurence: Chung Jin Gak
Lady Capulet: Hwang Jong Min
Nurse: Cho Eun A
Capulet: Kang Hyun Sik
Prince Escalus: Lee Boung Sun
Romeo’s Friend/Apothecary: Lee Soo Mi
Lady Montague: Kim Hye Young
Mercutio: Lee Do Hyun
Friar John: Ju Hyuk Jun
Count Paris/Pallbearer: Park Se Yong
Benvolio: Lee Dong Yong
Romeo: Kim Byung Cheol
Maiden: Lee Hae Young
Juliet: Kim Mun Jung
Romeo’s Friend/Maiden: Nam Jung Won
Montague/Tybalt’s Friend: Oh Joo Hwan
Tyabalt’s Friend/Maiden: Jang Eun Jin
Maiden: Lee Youn Ju
Romeo’s Friend: Lee Ha Rim
Tybalt’s Friend: Choi Sun Ho
Tybalt’s Friend/Maiden: Song Kyung Hwa
Tybalt: Lee Tae Hyung
Maiden/Health Official: Park Jung Hyun
Romeo’s Friend/Maiden: Kim Eun Kyoung
Maiden: Yun Hee Kyung
Tybalt’s Friend: Lim Se Un
Romeo’s Friends: Jung Woo Keun, Song Young Kwang
Director: Oh Tae-Suk
Designer: Cho Eun A
Lighting: Aikawa Masaaki
Sund: Kim Byung Cheol
Music: Hwang Gang Rok
Choreographer: Bae Jung Hae
Koran Traditional Dance Teacher: Kim Hyun Mi
P’ansari Teaching: Kim Hyoung Cheol
Costume: Lee Seung Moo
Make-up: Son Jin Sook
2006-11-27 16:18:15