By Calee Gardner
William Shakespeare’s most beloved romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, comes to life, adapted for young audiences in a beautiful bilingual production at Brigham Young University, put on by BYU Young Company. Romeo Y Julieta is directed by Julia Ashworth and highlights the diversity of culture and the follies of miscommunication.
Romeo and Julieta are love-struck youths stranded in love on two opposing ends of a deeply set feud between two families. The Montagues, an English-speaking family, and the Capuletos, a collection of various Spanish-speaking cultures. Romeo and Julieta’s love blossoms only briefly before miscommunication and decisions made in rages of passion and grief tear these lovers apart. “Never was there a tale of such woe then that of Juliet and her Romeo.”
A serenade of sound can be heard even as I wait in line to enter the theater, when I push past the doors, I am awarded with the sight of a black sombrero-ed female mariachi band. Their instruments and spontaneous yells reach out to the audience where the characters of this Shakespearian classic are already mingling with the collection of audience members. With open seating in the Nelke theater, I opted for a seat on the front row right on the same level with the stage. I focus in on the instruments until the house manager stands, welcoming us and introducing the performance.
The actors all took the stage, they introduced the characters they would be playing, distinguishing when a change of costume would also mean a change of character. With the characters set and the audience engaged, the show begins. They are giving the prologue partly in English and partly in Spanish. It is exciting and engaging. A sword fight begins between Daniel Mesta (Teobaldo/Watchman) and Benvolio (Nikole York). The fighting is swift and fixed with little verbal insults thrown back and forth, until The Prince/Mercutio (Sariah Lyles) enters to break up the fight. The two ruling ladies of the two houses, Amelia Johnson (Lady Montague/El Alma) and Natalie Jennings (Señora Capuleto) enter. The fight smooths over temporarily just in time to prepare for the Capuleto’s Fiesta. The opening of the show is engaging and clear to understand despite my minimal understanding of Spanish. It enhances the performance.
Soon, the love-struck Romeo (Maximillian Wright) strums hopelessly on a slightly out of tune ukulele. His two best friends, York and Lyles, who has now let her beautiful hair down to change her character, tease until he decided to attend the fiesta with them. The strained mother-daughter relationship between Julieta (Rachel Leishman) and Jennings emerges, we can tell there is love, but it is love with expectation of “good” behavior and a lack of communication. The love between Johnson’s El Ama and Leishman is much more like a mother and daughter. Or a kind but feisty “abuela”.
The fiesta is fun and bright with scarves and masks and music. The dancing is simple, but functions as an effective mode to introduce these two star-crossed lovers.
Each of the members of the Capuleto household have their own distinct flair of character. Señora Capuleto speaks with the elevated diction of Spain Spanish, Johnson adds her own Peruvian dialect into her character, and Mesta shines representing Mexico Spanish. This added an extra layer of celebration of the Spanish language as each threw in their own phrases of dialects. Director Ashworth collaborated with the students in the reworking of the script, each student was able to contribute some of their own background for the script and the English-speaking cast members were exposed to the language to better understand the story.
This collaboration and celebration of cultures was echoed in the costume design. Elizabeth Banks and Zoe Taylor used aspects such as the nod to Spanish flamenco influences in Señora Capuleto’s costume, a virgin Mary Hoodie for Teobaldo, and fabrics and embroidery inspired by Peru for El Alma. This continued as she adds a smart red tie for the prince, and the addition of a necklace of crosses for The Abbess (Olivia Ockey) to wear.
This famous tale, shortened to roughly 45 minutes, has beautiful moments of connection and honest acting. There are some poignant moments of sincerity from Wright especially as he mourns the lost of his friend, his wife’s kin, and even his own Julieta. His character speaks Spanish in a way that many learning the language for the first time might. It is charming and earnest. His Romeo is a gentle, caring lover. At one point as he attempts to communicate with El Alma, Benvolio throws him an English to Spanish dictionary. Laughter ensues.
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I was really impressed with the way this story moved so beautifully and quickly. The set also helped in the storytelling of the piece, though it was very simple. Three rotating banners stand to distinguish the setting and metal boxes and woven baskets hold props and costumes pieces. To form the balcony and the tomb, a platform is assembled and dissembled with ease. The mobile aspect of the set is important because BYU Young Company tours their show to various elementary schools for months following their campus performance. They need a set that can be easily moved and assembled.
I am impressed with the actors who play two different characters. They bring their second character to life with the same fullness as their main character portrayal. Johnson shines as El Alma. All the actors remain onstage the entire span of the production. The ensemble provides sounds from the sides: vocalizing or drumming on the set all the while or watching intently. The humming ensemble creates the transition to the abbey and tweeting birds represent the start of a new day. Ockey gives an impressive performance, I watched her character develop and make discoveries even when she was not speaking. I also loved watching Mesta, who brings an air of confidence and fire to his role. The sword duel between Lyles and Mesta is riddled with witty phrases, taunts, and teeming with energy. York brings diction, clarity, emotion, and strength to her portrayal of Romeo’s cousin. The love between Leishman and Wright is sweet and innocent, their passion and chemistry seems to be adapted for an audience of children.
It is a challenge to make Shakespeare obtainable and understandable and even entertaining for children who may not understand all of the elevated speech, but Romeo Y Julieta is clear even without words. I smiled as I heard words in Spanish that are familiar to me. I loved the scene between the nurse and Julieta, one of my favorite moments in Shakespeare’s work. Though much of the conversation is in Spanish, I was able to follow along perfectly with what the characters were feeling by their body language. The aspect of Spanish really adds to the meaning and purpose of the show. I was reminded of my own experience with language barriers and the love and connection that exists despite this unique variable.
I savored every moment of BYU’s Romeo Y Julieta. With final discovery of the perished lovers, the two ladies of the house of Capuleto and Montague embrace, echoing the message projected by Ashworth and the dramaturges Emily Dickerson and Hanna Gunson-McComb of embracing the good in other cultures and communicating effectively. This production focuses less on the love story and more on the importance of listening. McCombs observes in her dramaturg note, “Listen. Listen to our next generation, listen to our neighboring cultures and countries, listen so we might avoid miscommunication.”
I left the theater wishing the show could have gone on a little longer because it helped me to think about who I can reach out to in my life, and of course a little wistful from this famous love story. I recommend this show to both adult theatergoers hoping for a thought-provoking production, and for families looking for a fun night of entertaining theater. Thank you to BYU’s Young Company for a truly enjoyable evening.
Brigham Young University presents Romeo Y Julieta by William Shakespeare
Nelke Theater Harris Fine Arts Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602
Feb. 7–9, 14–16, 7:00 PM, Feb 10, 17, 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM
Tickets: $5-8
Contact: 801-422-2981, tickets@byu.edu
BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications Facebook Page
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Romeo Y Julieta Facebook Event
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