Review of Actors from the London Stage Up Coming Performance of Romeo & Juliet

Mabee Theatre, March 11th, 2010

By

Robert Oakley

35 years of performance delight while touring over 15 universities  all the way  from  Notre Dame to our very own HBU Huskies, this “truly unique” program guarantees to deliver a show sure to entice the imagination and a surreal perspective of the Shakespearian era.

Actors from the London Stage come to Houston Baptist University with Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet--a most famous romance between lovers never meant to be.

For tonight’s review I will take several questions into consideration. Although I’ve not seen anything from the London Stage before nor have I seen Romeo and Juliet, I expect nothing more then a superb performance (It is Shakespeare after all). Granted the stage will be small being the limited but infamous Mabee Theatre, I expect the minute space to widen as the characters develop one scene to the next and transport the audience into a tale set in Italy long before any of us were born.

How well do the London players portray their interpretation of a classic?

•     Verbally
•     Physically
•     Emotionally

  
Setting and Mood: How well does the structure of the stage portray the Shakespearian Atmosphere?

•     Lighting
•     Set-props
•     Devices

  
Was he audience engaged  into the performance and in what ways?

•     Laughing, crying, etc. . .

•     Will the actors dare to break the fourth wall and ask the audience questions? 

Story and Character Development being of the most important question I shall consider.
As I experience visual story telling more, the more I realize what that experience is for--to escape and at the same time experience reality. Though different this reality may be, it's an experience through different shoes allowing an opportunity visually answer the question "What if?"

And with that, I will have to just wait and see how it goes... So tonight, seven o'clock sharp we'll know for sure as I fully intend to report on tonight's festivities.


"My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."