Romeo and Juliet by Lyric Theatre (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Romeo and Julietby Lyric Theatre Molly Quinn-Leitch Romeo and JulietPresented by the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. 402– 503 2023. Dramaturgy by Anne Bailie. Directed by Philip Crawford. Set design by Robin Peoples. Lighting design by James C. McFetridge. Costume design by Gillian Lennox. Music composed by Chris Warner. With Adam Gillian (Romeo), Emma Dougan (Juliet), Thomas Finnegan (Mercutio/Apothecary), Patrick Buchanan (Lord Capulet), Rosie McClelland (Lady Capulet), Ray Sesay (Friar Laurence), Eugene Evans (Count Paris), Finnian Garbutt (Benvolio), and others. Philip Crawford's Romeo and Julietopened the Lyric Theatre's 2023 season on a cold, damp February evening in Belfast, contrasting with the hot Verona summer of the play's setting. Noting that this production was the company's twenty-fifth Shakespeare production on Ridgeway Street and the first production of Romeo and Julietsince 1971, the program celebrated the legacy of the Lyric's founder Mary O'Malley (who started the formative theater in her back garden shed in 1951) and affirmed their commitment to "bringing the classic text into a modern-day setting" for Belfast audiences. Indeed, the modern setting of this production was immediately apparent as I took my seat in the auditorium, the set design juxtaposing Italian Renaissance inspired architecture with a digital advertisement board, which was scrolling through adverts for brands such as Aperol and mock magazine covers featuring shots of Romeo and Lady Capulet, among other characters. The set designer, Robin Peoples, situated the production in a Verona inspired by Italian luxury and high fashion, with opera arias playing before the show began to reinforce the production's continental backdrop. Costume designer Gillian Lennox created branding for both feuding families, with two "C"s aligned beside a centered figure of a puma for the House of Capulet and "MONTAGUE" crowned by a capital "M" for the House of Montague. These distinctive logos were incorporated into the modern designer wardrobe utilized throughout the play to distinguish the houses within this fashion-forward Verona. Crawford and voice and text coach Michael Corbridge still managed to preserve a sense of familiarity and localism in line delivery as most of the actors kept their distinct Northern Irish accents. Whilst the most obvious method of differentiating between the Montagues and Capulets of Romeo and Julietin a Belfast theater might be to fit them within either a Nationalist or Unionist template, this production was purposefully nonsectarian. Instead, as suggested by the digital [End Page 293]magazine covers, the families were presented as rival haute couture fashion houses, a spin on Shakespeare's "Two households, both alike in dignity" (Prologue 1). Crawford commented in the program that the production had made a conscious decision to avoid any "analogy between the feuding families and the sectarian politics of Northern Ireland." The absence of this sectarian analogy suggested a directorial intent to move away from the dichotomous violence that has enveloped Northern Ireland's sociopolitical and theatrical legacy in recent years. I was reminded of O'Malley's influence on the Lyric's existence and survival through the bombardment of the Troubles, noticing her bust perched on a wall outside the main auditorium. The Lyric Theatre's Ridgeway Street building was itself almost obliterated by a 200-pound bomb during the Troubles (Adams 196), with O'Malley, literally and figuratively, rebuilding the theater. As Romeo and Julietwas the twenty-fifth Shakespearean production to run in the theater's Ridgeway Street location, its creative team looked to the future and to fresh perspectives on Shakespearean performance in a "post-conflict" Northern Ireland, instead of dwelling on the clichés of the past. Arguably, however, this self-consciously apolitical production was nevertheless political in the ways it has been marshaled to perform healing work in Belfast theatrical circles and schools. The production's focus on young love, modern technology, the material legacies of violence, and suicide transposed into a contemporary period drew attention to Northern Ireland's alarmingly high suicide statistics among younger generations, with Romeo and Juliet's ultimate demises heightening awareness of this pressing contemporary concern to the audience. This was a production highly cognizant of its triggering themes. Accompanying school workshops and support...