Play # 1 Romeo And Juliet.

I figured that it would be a good idea to give some insight to WHAT we were actually seeing in Russia so people can get a better understanding as to what Russian theater is like. So I thought It would be good to start from the beginning.

The first play that we witnessed was Romeo and Juliet. In this article as well as the following articles, I will do my best to break it down into core elements of the play itself such as the set, actors, etc.

Set:
The set for romeo and juliet was a rather interesting one. It seemed to be abstract in design, with something resembling PVC pipes making two opposite houses on respective sides of the stages, as well as some boxes and and clock in the middle. It also had an opening in the deep back of the stage (which I later learned was actually not as deep as the stage went, it went further) to allow actors to have a dramatic back lit entrance. The stage design of the buildings allowed for some impressive physical acts from the actors, and the boxes were able to be moved to set up a podium of sorts. They also had some plastic plexiglass type panes which were used to create some interesting invironments. (the planes were not completely transparent which allowed the characters to separate themselves, and even sometimes hide themselves from others.) The houses themselves, as previously stated were constructed with something similar to PVC pipes to allow for physical feats, and also there were balconies, which allowed the audience to buy into the structure of the building itself, instead of just seeing the pipes that were constructed in an almost jungle gym-esque way. It seemed to really work for the play and made it unique in it's own way.

Props:
Some of the props for R&J included some sort of cloth type harnass to be used as a swing, masks, the previously discussed boxes, flashy costumes and a clock that ended up center stage used as a reference to show that sometimes when characters were together "time stood still" Hula hoops were also a part of the props found in the productions. I felt that sometimes the props were hard to fully understand, like the hula hoops were at one point supposed to be blood or something, it was hard to tell. However I thought some props were a really nice touch. The boxes were multi-purpose and worked very well, and the clock was also a good edition. Many of the props were white, and sometimes it threw me off and made it seem monochrome, but that didn't take away from how useful they were, just came off as odd.

Lighting:
Fantastic. The lighting really seemed to work for me. I thought it was well used, especially when they showed the prince (I think it was the prince) who was originally dressed in white, covered in a red light, giving this villanous vibe off at the appropriate time.

Music:
A bit odd. Im not sure why the director chose to use Weird Al's "Lasagna" in the play, it seemed very distracting and out of place, and it happened more than once. If I could, I would like to ask the director why he chose that music. Other than that it seemed to flow well, but seemed just anti-climatic at times.

Acting:
Seemed very fluid. The actors knew the stage very well and seemed to have no sporadic or confusing body movements. On a side note, the actors must have been very, very, physically fit. Their ability to climb and swing up the buildings with hard-to-believe ease showed how much training they must have had. The fighting seemed well choreographed, and it all seemed to come together very well.

Overall:
An abstract approach to a classic piece. I believe it is definately worth a seeing to just go see the actors and how much time they put into the piece. Seemed a little on the short side as far as a "spectacle" would be concerned. That said there were some interesting dances, fights and aerial movements, as well as the phenominal fluid movements to scale/crawl/swing up the houses. It was something fresh and new for R&J.