The clock struck 11:15 pm as the audience clapped for the cast of Romeo & Juliet at Centenary College's Marjorie Lyons Playhouse on Saturday night. But it was a better production than is implied by the 3-hour length. Nate Wasson and Jessica Maxey, students playing the principal roles, each have a way of touching the audience.
Maxey is a radiant 17 year-old. The lights like her. Having seen her in children's theater as well as with the River City Repertory, I can see that she's growing in dramatic fluency as well as beauty.
Wasson is a Centenary student who plays Romeo with becoming vulnerability.
The supporting players are led by Rob Gilchrist, who plays Juliet's nurse. Early in the play he capably channels the spirit of Church Lady. Watching him wrestle with a role that slides from fun to forlorn is engrossing.
Blake Powell presents a strong Friar Lawrence. Cameron Bradford is cutting as Mercutio.
In my favorite of his many roles upon local stages, Jim Cowles plays blustery Signor Capulet, father to Juliet. Haley Young plays his wife with cool competence. Destin Bass has the minor role of the Prince of Verona in this play but his voice and stage presence have the vibe of big talent.
Don Hooper's spare set design is effective in providing a New Orleans ambience to the play in the opening scenes and an otherworldly air to the bedroom scenes. Yet metal towers have loomed in a number of plays at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse. The air of default design is creeping in upon the tall rectangles.
The jazz and blues used as incidental music was striking. But in the early part of the play the music played in the background as the dialogue unfolded. That music was distinctly distracting and handicapped the actors' lines. Happily, the background music disappeared later in the play.
Heather Peak Hooper, director, has not allowed her cast to wear body mics. Hurrah. Because they almost never work as well as intended and because they rob voices of their timbre, I despise the mics so ubiquitous upon the modern stage. Pardon my rant, but if you want to be an actor, build your diaphragm and vocal cords while you develop the expressiveness of your eyes and hands. That said and compliment delivered to the director, I'd recommend you get a seat in one of the front rows.
Saturday night there were a lot of young students in the audience, which was good. My 11 year-old son seemed captured by the drama. He gave the production quite a compliment when he noted that, "The bedroom scene; ahem. That was a lot like a James Bond movie."
Box office (noon to 4 pm): 869-5242. Please see an earlier post for dates and times.
Note that director Hooper is presenting an alternating set of plays; the companion to R & J is an all-female cast that presents The Taming of the Shrew.
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