Romeo and Juliet Act 5

Old Story Plays New

Review of Elm Shakespeare Company’s Play “Romeo & Juliet”

By Aaron Luo

Romeo & Juliet

By William Shakespeare, Directed by Raphael Massie

Sept.1, 8 p.m.

Edgerton Park, New Haven

Major Characters:

Romeo: Steven Lee Johnson

Benvolio: Avery Bargar

Mercutio: James Udom

Juliet: Courtney Jamison

Nurse: Gracy Brown

Tybalt: Claire Warden

Friar Lawrence: James Andreassi

The play begins with a tussle between the servants of the house of Montague and the house of Capulet. The fight emphasizes the conflict between the two families. One day, Lord Montague’s son Romeo sneaked into the Capulet’s party to find a girl he liked. However, he saw Juliet, the daughter of the Lord Capulet, and fell in love with her. They like each other but later found they are from the family of their enemy. Despite the hostility between the two families, they married by Friar Lawrence, a Franciscan Monk. Unfortunately, another tussle between Tybalt, Mercutio, and Romeo tore the lovers apart. Juliet was forced to marry with Paris, while Romeo was forced to leave by the deportation. Juliet then drank the sleeping portion from Lawrence to act dead. After Romeo heard Juliet was “dead”, he came back and poisoned himself to death beside Juliet. Juliet awoke and found Romeo’s corpse. Under a great depression, she killed herself with a dagger. Two families finally realized their hatred was nonsense. The conflict was resolved by love.

The two tussles were emphasized to reveal the unsolvable hatred between the two families. In the other hand, because the love solved the hatred at the end, it shows the power of love, which is the theme of the whole show. Additionally, monologues both Juliet and Romeo presented reinforced the topic of love. Besides the story itself, these monologues are the base stone of the show. In the real world, we do not usually speak out our mind when we are alone. However, in the show, the lovers’ outspoken mental activities and body languages corporates together. For example, when Juliet tried to convince herself to love Romeo as a person but not the name, we can all feel the excitement of love. They gave the audience a real, pure sense of love between Romeo and Juliet successfully. The sophisticated individual minds between the separated lovers also enrich their burst of joy from the few reunion. By emphasizing those lovers’ monologues, the author and the director are able to express the theme of love and make the tragedy more appealing.

By possibly considering to entertain the audience, the production makes adaptations from modern cultures and add them into the traditional Shakespeare’s play. The customs are simplified, keeping the symbol of nobility by enriching the pattern on the customs but cutting off the redundant decorations for higher motility. The modification makes the show more succinct and provides some benefits. For example, it made the fighting more compelling. In addition, it allows the actors to perform some modern dance moves. Including the dance moves, the show had a lot of modern music and postures adapted from movies and daily life. These are all meant to attract the audience today.

On the other hand, to keep the spirit of Shakespeare, the language was preserved. From the modifications the program made, we can conclude that the show is designed for the youth or people who initially not interested in Shakespeare.

James Andreassi is a good actor as Friar Lawrence in the show. Lawrence is the monk that witnesses Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. The monk is a sympathetic character who gave Juliet the sleeping portion for the good of the lovers. James’s acting, however, adds more to the character and makes Lawrence real. While Lawrence was convincing Romeo to leave temporarily, he stopped Romeo from killing himself. Although himself is fear of the knife (through acting of course), he snatched the knife regardless of injury. From the acting, the kindness of Lawrence is highlighted.


When people saw Juliet lied down on the ground because of the sleeping portion, everyone but Lawrence was shouting and crying for Juliet’s “death.” The contract of active and inactive made Lawrence noticeable on the stage. In addition to James’s acting, either facially or motional, the audience was able to feel the worry and emotional struggle of the character. James Andreassi is no doubt a great actor because he made the character real.

I myself think it is ingenious to combine modern elements and traditional play. However, too much superfluous joy is added into this play. The show is delightful at some point, but originally it should be a tragedy. Dance moves, daps, and other elements distract the audience and pull them slightly away. To bring up the sense of grief, the delightful parts of the show should be more focused on the love between Romeo and Juliet but not others. Thus the contract will be more intense, and the show will be more look like a tragedy. On the other hand, if the show meant to entertain the audience, the director should redesign the language to make it easier to understand, but then the delightful parts could be kept. It was a great show, it almost hit my expectation either consider it as a serious show or a delightful one.