Romeo and Juliet

Davis' newest theater company, the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, selected a beautiful spot and a lovely night for the opening of its debut offering, 'Romeo and Juliet.'

The production, directed by Rob Salas, is presented in the gazebo at the UC Davis Arboretum; a circle of folding chairs is placed around the stage area, and twinkling lights add to the setting's magic. As the audience enters the seating area, the cast members stand at the posts surrounding the stage and ring chimes.

These chimes become part of the play itself, as the evening progresses.

This shoestring production doesn't have a 'set' per se, but the actors bring the story to life without really needing much.

Likewise, the play is done in modern dress.

This is a lusty, modern version of Shakespeare's classic tale. The opening sequence is a whirl of bodies, with actors coming dangerously close to the seated audience, although stepping agilely over patrons' toes.

The seven-member cast handles all the roles; only the actors playing the title characters do not take on multiple parts.

Ian Walters is a perfect Romeo: a curly headed lad in the throes of his first love. He has the swagger and bravado of a young man when in the company of his friends, upholding the family honor against their generations-long enemy, the Capulets.

And yet Walters is awkward and shy when Romeo is in the presence of Juliet, who makes his hormones rage.

He doesn't quite know how to woo her.

The structure of the gazebo calls for a rather ingenious 'balcony scene,' the likes of which you probably won't see again.

You'll wonder how they'll pull it off, as the play approaches that scene, but it works beautifully.

Gia Battista's Juliet, no shrinking violet, is a young woman who knows what she wants and what she doesn't, and won't let family enmities stand in her way.

The wedding night scene is both sensuous and innocent, and both actors make excellent use of a long piece of filmy cloth to suggest a bedroom.

All this said, the actor who impressed me most on opening night is Mark Curtis Ferrando, who played both Mercutio and Paris. Ferrando did his first Shakespeare ('The Winter's Tale') only a year ago, and at that time was unfamiliar with the style.

Ferrando certainly has blossomed in this production. He brings the necessary physicality to his fight scenes, and oozes sexuality as he instructs Romeo on the art of wooing.

Every young girl should have a nurse like Stephanie Hakinson (who also plays Sampson in this production). The nurse engages in almost conspiratorial chatter with her mistress, regarding her amorous adventures, and becomes a real friend to the girl.

Kristopher Ide's Friar Lawrence is a lone voice of reason amid pride, prejudice and persecution.

Matthew Canty plays both Romeo's cousin Benvolio and the servant Balthasar; Brendan Ward is Juliet's cousin Tybalt and her father.

This 'Romeo and Juliet' is an impressive start for the fledgling theater company, which promises even better things to come in the future.

Romeo and Juliet

Was there ever a more perennial theme than teens in love? The ultimate teen love story is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the second Ghost Light Theatre production, opening at the Veterans Memorial Theater on Saturday, running through August 7.

Director Dave Burmester has set his play at some nebulous time in the future, a period many years after a cataclysmic event has decimated humanity and compromised what we currently consider civilization. The Verona of this future world has developed a dual power structure. Adults derive their power, as always, from money and influence. Young people resort to violent, though rarely deadly, conflict.

It appears that at all periods of time, there are tribal conflicts and the Capulets and the Montagues -- the Hatfields and McCoys of the Shakespearean world -- are still at odds with each other.

Bridging that enmity come the star-crossed lovers. Dara Yazdani is outstanding as Romeo, impetuous and intensely soulful, who falls in love at first sight and is driven to suicide at the thought of losing his love forever. He makes Romeo as up to date as any modern film filled with teenage angst.

Likewise, Genny Moreno as Juliet is as frivolous as any 13 year old girl, full of daydreams and ready to fling herself into the arms of her Romeo.

Josh Toliver gave a superb performance as the ill-fated Mercutio. He immediately set the scene as a hormone-driven teen with all the in-jokes and double-entendres in which young men engage.

The setting, looking like a back alley somewhere, with graffiti painted on corrugated metal walls, and boxes strewn about, lead to the logical comparison to West Side Story, especially when the rival gangs engage in hand-to-hand combat with very real looking fight choreography by Chris Oca.

As leader of the rival gang, Eric Delacorte as Tybalt is particularly effective in his fight scenes. He wields a mean stick.

Zoe Garcia as Lady Capulet had the sultry demeanor of a Catherine Zeta Jones, slinking around the stage in skin-tight black leather, showing only casual concern for her daughter.

More sympathetic toward the emotional life of Juliet is her Nurse, played competently by Bethany Bishop.

Davis Wurzler is Friar Laurence, the monk who performs the wedding ceremony for the two lovers and gives Juliet a potion to simulate death. Unfortunately, Wurzler tended to rush his lines too much and many of them were unintelligible.

Lighting design by James Henderson was excellent in setting the mood for each scene or spotlighting a particular grouping. Particularly impressive was the dance sequence (with choreography by Dana Snyder), lit in red tones, with bright white for Romeo and Juliet. Some of the actors had difficulty hitting their light spot on, so that bodies were illuminated but faces hidden.

This is a production which will have broad appeal, even to those who think they don’t like Shakespeare, and there is enough action on stage that it should be fun even for grammar school children.

Burmester gets an A+ for this one.