Romeo and Juliet, Folger Theatre

Director Raymond O. Caldwell makes a bold statement in his director's note for his new production at the Folger of Romeo and Juliet: this is not a love story. It's a promise that he lives up to, creating a world around the central characters where everyone looks for substitutions for love and connection in drugs and alcohol, where political divides have a bloody toll, and two young people are overwhelmed and consumed by their first taste of genuine human connection. It's also a world that exists in a certain tension with the play as it's most often perceived and in its unedited text. Nowhere in Shakespeare are we given a context for the feuding Capulets and Montagues, beyond that it's a deep-set antipathy at odds with the order-seeking powers-that-be present in the Prince. Here, Caldwell takes inspiration and even words from current political leaders themselves to flavor the conflict, pitting Lord Capulet and Lady Montague as political rivals on opposite parties vying for the presidency. Why not, when so often productions color code the houses and their supporters in red and blue, use what those colors mean in contemporary America?

Cole Taylor as Romeo and Caro Reyes Rivera as Julietin William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, on stage at the Folger Theatre, October 1November 10, 2024. Photo by Erika Nizborski



For one, it's an odd choice to place Lady Montague as the blue-coded political candidate, a role that has a total of two spoken lines in the play, and keep her as sidelined as she is in the original play. It feels like a gesture that grants her a power and authority in this world, except that we don't actually see her afforded any respect or time within this story, or truly any indication that her larger story is existing just off stage. Todd Scofield's Lord Capulet, a much more central character in the play, is coded as the conservative political opposition to Lady Montague, and because his role has so much more time and development by Shakespeare, you're left with an imbalance on stage that colors a directorial choice. I've spun a series of arguments and justifications for the choice in my own mind as I grappled with this overlay, but the overall effect read to me as an over-simplification of both the forces within the play and of a political argument.  Each side is bad! Everyone has a substance abuse issue as the root of their choices! Kids and phones! If Romeo's first infatuation with Rosaline is hollow, making this Rosaline an entirely AI created image and series of Instagram posts places the fault with the world, and not with a young man who fails to understand and see the complexity of another human being.  It passes the blame to a larger society, which leaves Romeo and the other young people with no chance to grow and no reason for anyone of either generation present take accountability.


As you might intuit, it's not an interpretation that sits well with me, as it seems like a deeply cynical and nihilistic read of a text that was written to end in seeking the truth of the tragedy and each side stepping forward to end their cycle of violence together. Not every tragedy is as bitter at heart as a Timon of Athens, but we live in a society that hasn't escaped the notion that the most grimdark version of the story is probably the truest and most daring. 

Fran Tapia as Lady Capulet,Caro Reyes Rivera as Juliet, and Luz Nicolas as Nursein William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Raymond O. Caldwell, on stage at the Folger Theatre, October 1November 10, 2024. Photo by Erika Nizborski



But Caldwell has created a production that stays remarkably true to his vision for the play, which is no small feat in a world where plenty of milquetoast productions never follow through on their supposed big swings. It's genuinely fascinating to watch a balcony scene where Romeo (a truly luminous Cole Taylor) and Juliet (Caro Reyes Rivera, finding a very specific pent-in energy desperate for any window to break through) never quite seem to connect on the same page for longer than a kiss. Instead of two households alike in dignity, a movement-centered opening sequence (choreographed by Tiffany Quinn) demonstrates two factions mirrored and mired in their own self-destruction in violence, drugs, and alcohol. In Caldwell's play, there is no savior coming, and no hope for a better tomorrow; tragedy only brings devastation without catharsis and transformation, because as he relates in an interview on the Folger website, that's the truth of what he sees about our world today that stands opposed to the happier ending found in the original play, because no one is learning a lesson.

It's also very exciting to see some of the ways that Caldwell is broadening the world of the play to include a wider audience as well. Most notably, Fran Tapia (Lady Capulet) and Luz Nicolas (Nurse), actors known locally for their excellent work at GALA Theater, transform the Capulet household into a bilingual one, and spend much of their scenes in conversation with Juliet in Spanish (as translated by Rosa Garay López). It's a shame that the technology on opening night wasn't up to speed in providing fluid English supertitles; the bright spot was that even as the translation was garbled onscreen by a series of technical errors in the video system, the actors could proceed entirely unaware and simply play their scenes well and bring in an intriguing component to this particular family dynamic.

It must be emphasized: there is very good work being done here. It's a pleasure to have these actors assembled here, working on this story. Caldwell, a very talented director and artistic leader in our DC arts community, commits to his vision for the play, and works in harmony with his creative team to bring that vision to life. I hope it makes a connection with audiences who have never been knocked flat by a Romeo and Juliet before, that this becomes their personal landmark production. When I see a world in turmoil that doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes, and if I want to hold a mirror up to nature in the theatre, I want to see more than just the narrowness of my late-night despair for the world; I want to see the paths to greater understanding that Shakespeare originally laid out somewhere in that reflection. This production wasn't for me, but I think it's the kind of big swing that I want to see theatres taking, especially classical theatre. Let's keep taking swings so that everyone has a chance to find the production that feels like a shout of truth just to them.



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