Bellevue Colleges Theater Arts program just wrapped up their rendition of the William Shakespeare classic “Romeo and Juliet”, directed by Karen Jo Fairbrook, and if you didn’t find the time to venture out and see it you missed one heck of a show.
The shows cast is as follows: The Prince: Bryan, Paris: Paul Barrios, Mercutio: Zack Smith, The Friar: John Tembreull, Messenger: Jordan Adam, Lord Capulet: Dylan Smith, Lady Capulet: Georgette Anderson, Juliet Capulet: Kelsey Maher, The Nurse: Tsige Tafesse, Tybalt: Torin white, Pita: Genieva Ramos, Gregory: John Tembreull, Lord Montague: Edward Wang, Lady Montague: Ryoko Takahashi, Romeo Montague: Eric Schmidt, Benvolio: Paul Ayottte, Balthasar: Genieva Ramos, The Apothecary: Ryoko Takahashi, The singers Nate Jensen and Christina Marie Taylor.
This drama is one of the great tragic plays by William Shakespeare. The famous story of the “star-crossed” young lovers Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The themes running through the play address the issues of the consequences of immature blind passion, hatred and prejudice. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are young teenagers who fall deeply in love but their families are bitter enemies. Regardless of the feud between their families they marry in secret. They make every effort to conceal their actions but the story ends in tragedy.
I was rather skeptical going in, thinking it was going to be another modernized monstrosity of a Shakespeare classic. Modern it was; monstrosity, it was far from. A common mistake made by theaters trying to recreate “Romeo and Juliet” is that they abandon the traditional dialogue and go for complete readability to moderners. In that transition they lose the true beauty of Shakespeare’s words, and ultimately produce a play that is nothing like the original. BC’s show managed to keep true to Shakespeare and add its own twist, which made the play fun to watch, but made the audience connect and relate to each character.
Fairbrook did an outstanding job in directing the play. The venue was small and intimate and she really utilized the space to really bring every character to life. I had a very good time and the show was thoroughly entertaining. This being my first experience going to a BC production I could easily recommend others to go to future productions.