‘Shakespeare’s R+J’ as portrayed by parallel same-sex casts: Male cast
“Shakespeare’s R&J” takes place in a Catholic school classroom, the set for which was strikingly rendered, during an unidentified but obviously modern time.
In the play, as the students become engrossed in the work, they begin to embody their Shakespearean counterparts.
Michael Todd
Contributing Writer
For those fortunate enough to have squeezed into the tightly packed Raymond Hodges Theater, Friday evening was one that resonated with the energy and tension of a multilayered reality that not only took audience members to the edge of their seats, but out of this world entirely.
“Shakespeare’s R&J” takes place in a Catholic school classroom, the set for which was strikingly rendered, during an unidentified but obviously modern time.
In the beginning, all actions were youthfully exaggerated, appropriately vulgar and undeniably hilarious in accords with the stifled youths who manifested them, bringing forth easy howls of laughter from the audience.
Yet as the play progressed, the show made a faultless metamorphosis into the Shakespearean work that inspired it, albeit a few areas in which the reality of their conformity and tension-driven lives broke through.
According to Stephen Fried, director of the male cast, the goal was to begin in “as realistic a world as possible (and) see if the play could take over.”
As the students sunk deeper into the emotion of their show within a show, their Shakespearean counterparts began to embody them as much as the schoolboys embodied their characters. Perhaps the most impressive feat of all was the dedication and skill it took for the performers to juggle and honor both of their characters with such accuracy and genuineness.
Actors Zachary Page, Austin Seay, Matt Bloch, Alex Ireys, Matt Lipscomb and Maxwell Moore – at times playing various roles –seduced their audience with the sincerity of their respective performances and portrayals of their characters, pulling audience members in further as if each maintained his own gravitational orbit.
All members of each cast seemed to agree upon the fact that there was a constant need to stop and question their actions, to be able to identify which character any action belonged to and to be able to justify it for the both of them.
Over the course of the play, the cast did a stunningly seamless job of not only jumping between their schoolboy and Shakespearean characters, but also of appropriating their surroundings for each role and world within which they act.
Overturned student desks became church alters, and all that was needed for Romeo to profess his love in the classic balcony scene was an old overhead projector and the same teacher’s desk that would later become Juliet’s casket.
VCU theater major Raven Wilkes found it to be “amazing we could still be pulled in, exactly the same way, even though (the boys) never stepped off stage.”
Despite the accuracy of these comparisons, it fails to mask the fact that the male cast was, at times, a little chaotic and hard to follow, radiating a stimulatingly vibrant energy that could have been better harnessed.
“I really wasn’t expecting to feel so emotionally involved,” said VCU student Bobbie Peters, displaying not only this performance’s but also Shakespeare’s ability to connect with modern day life in such a raw and concrete manner.
Actors Zach Page (Romeo) and Austin Seay (Juliet), both self-identified heterosexuals, have known each other for about two years and are extremely comfortable with one another. Even so, when asked separately, each admitted to having his struggles in performing his part.
“It was definitely harder for me,” Page asserted. “Austin really stepped forward, but I had more walls to break down.”
The pair agreed that once they were able to “move from blocking to something more,” it made it easy for them to “fall in love (with each other) on stage,” in Seay’s words. “(We) created a sensuality all our own,” added Page. Neither could imagine doing the performance with anyone else.
During the Q-and-A session, Seay and Page joked that they kissed right before going on stage for the opening performance. “There are some things ya gotta do,” Seay added. “(And) what happens in the dressing room, stays in the dressing room.”
Once the boys were able to overcome their own obstacles with the sexuality the play centered around, they were better able to manifest the idea of that astounding, eye-opening and unfamiliar feeling of a first love.
“They’re not sure what it is; they just know how strong they feel it,” Seay said of both his and Page’s characters. “It’s just love.”
Upcoming performances
Male Cast
Oct. 2 at 3 p.m., Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 8 at 9:30 p.m.
Female Cast
Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 8 at 7 p.m.
$10 with VCU ID, $25 general admission.
Photos by Briana Townsend
