A new twist on a classic story

Lorenzo Sarinana and Carolyn Lohr
Photo by Ellen Nelson

There are entire college degrees on Shakespeare. Shakespearean scholars have dedicated entire lifetimes to the detailed study and analysis of his plays. Shakespeare festivals take place in every major city from coast to coast. Students from grade school through graduate school perform his plays. I remember the first time I actually understood his words. I was reading Taming of the Shrew and I was probably 11 years old. And I remember the exact moment, where it became clear, and suddenly the words weren’t a foreign language anymore. It was like I developed the ability to speak in a new language. I then immersed myself in his plays – immensely proud of myself. Yet, people are often tempted to change his words, his settings, or even his characters to bring the classic yet challenging material more modern.  Vintage Theatre is taking their stab at adapting a Shakespearean classic right now. Romeo and Juliet is now playing in their intimate space, with a cast of more than 25 actors and directed by Denver Theatre favorite Robert Kramer.

The tragic tale of the star-crossed and ill-fated lovers is set in modern day at the California/Mexico border. The Anglo Capulet’s are at war with the Hispanic Montague’s – an age old battle between two rival beer distributors. The bulk of the script remains unchanged, with the exception of a few small portions of the text that have been translated into Spanish, allowing for the Hispanic Montague’s to express their contempt for the Capulet family in their native language. There were very specific moments that were translated into Spanish, usually the speeches that everyone knows – which kept the emotion of the scene true and enabled the audience to still understand what was happening, despite it truly being in a foreign language.

It is tricky and dangerous territory when you play with the words of Shakespeare. People are very passionate about the language and it is a big risk. One that, for the most part, paid off well for Vintage Theatre. The Spanish and the new location breathed new life into a script that personally I felt had been played out. However, I really didn’t see the “rival breweries” at play during the show. It was mentioned once at the beginning of the show when a few cases of beer were carried across the stage, and it was never mentioned or seen again. It is disappointing to see such an interesting idea get used so little. The set design (Rob Kramer and Veronica Lee) was adequate for the needs of the space. They needed a very adaptable set with a lot of open space and it worked well for their needs. Costuming was modern so it certainly gave the costumer (Cat Smith) a different feel for the show. I would have liked to have seen more visual interest in the costumes between the Hispanic and Anglo families. This would have helped identify the difference between the families, and also to celebrate the Hispanic heritage of the Montague family.

Of course, walking into this show, I was wondering how the fight scenes would be done. The Vintage stage is small and the fight scenes are very large. I was happily surprised with the results of the fight choreographers (Missy Moore and Benaiah Anderson.) The fight scenes felt very strong and carefully choreographed – and even welcomed some different and new ideas for items to use as weapons. I’ll never look at a scarf the same way again.

The performances were strong. And in some cases – incredibly strong. Lorenzo Sarinana as Romeo was everything Romeo is supposed to be. Passionate, dreamy, romantic, and everything else that would cause a young girl to fall madly in love with him. Sarinana’s Spanish was impressive as well. He clearly is fluent in the language so it enabled him to speak with very clear intent and passion when he was speaking in Spanish. Carolyn Lohr as Juliet was also impressive. She started the performance a bit weak, but grew into the role and the emotion as the script gave her more to play with. Her death scene was particularly beautiful and tragic. Both Sarinana and Lohr are newcomers to the Denver theatre community, and they are two faces to be watching for.

Another performance that truly stood out amongst the huge cast was Andy Lacerte as Mercutio. His performance was so strong and believable that the audience was able to truly care about the character and become invested in him. Thus, making his death even more impactful. In reality there were many performances in this show that really stood out – Boni McIntyre gave the character of the nurse a wonderful and different twist, as did Jason Maxwell as Peter and Scott Glennon as Friar Lawrence.

The bulk of the cast was very strong, and certainly had a very good grasp of Shakespeare and the intent behind the language. However, there were a few actors that did struggle with both the Shakespearean language as well as the Spanish translations. Some actors spoke so quickly that I couldn’t understand anything, while others dropped lines and struggled with the language. Some of this could be chalked up to opening night nerves, but it resulted in some moments when the show really dragged and I was suddenly very aware of just how long it was – about 3 ½ hours long.

Shakespeare is hard to do well. It is even harder to do well when you experiment with it and take it out of the time period for which it was written. Kramer deserves to be commended for his work. He clearly has a strong understanding of Shakespeare and he had definite vision for this production. Personally, I just wanted more of his vision.  He took so many risks that I wish he would have taken some of them even further.

Taking risks is what puts people on the map. In pretty much any occupation or in any aspect of life taking risks is what leads to greatness. Vintage has been putting itself on the map for its reputation of strong theatre – and now they are taking smart risks as well. They are to be applauded for trying something like this and going out of their comfort zone. This show is definitely worth seeing. Order your tickets now – they close May 3rd and I’m willing to bet that they sell quickly.