JULIET & ROMEO: THE TRAP OF ROMANTICISM

About halfway through, Juliet & Romeo takes a turn that made me like it a lot more, although I was already having a good time with it.

Conceived and directed by Ben Duke, and devised by Duke and Solène Weinachter, who were its original performers, this dance/theatre piece imagines Juliet and Romeo as a contemporary couple who did not die in the Capulets’ tomb but lived on, married, in Paris. When we meet them, they’ve reached middle age: Romeo doesn’t talk much anymore; Juliet badgers him; their sex life has withered. Thinking it might help — they’ve tried everything else, including ayahuasca and couples massage — they have decided to act out their memories for us, hoping that might help.

The core tension is between Romeo and Juliet’s real-life experience and the romanticized version of it that Shakespeare wrote after conducting a boozy, night-long interview with them. Romeo woke up the next day pretty sure he’d overshared.

In the first part of the evening, the fun comes from the juxtaposition of Shakespeare’s poetry — the exquisite verse of their first meeting, for instance, versus the overwhelming horniness that Romeo felt in real life. “It was a big feeling,” Romeo remembers. Waving his hands around his groin, he adds, “But it was mostly compressed in this area.” Then Romeo dances a herky-jerky solo to the Beatles’ “I Want You.” Similarly, when they first arrive in their Paris flat, Juliet and Romeo have flailingly voracious  sex, their dance full of awkward lifts.

This choreography is far more slapstick than subtle and I found myself wondering why Juliet & Romeo was engaging me. The answer, I think, is the freshness of the concept combined with the openheartedness of the performances. Emily Terndrup and John Kendall are the very capable dancer/actors in this mounting.

Then the pivot happened. The couple experiences a tragedy, which I won’t give away, and suddenly, there’s emotional depth. For me, the ensuing duet, which looks contact improv-based and is danced to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, is the most effective — and affecting — choreographic storytelling of the evening: Romeo and Juliet are supporting each other; this is love in action, and, for the first time, we see what’s at stake, what could be lost, if their relationship dissolves.

Juliet & Romeo’s critique of romanticism, which is where the evening’s most significant rewards lie, also deepens at this point. Juliet clings to Shakespeare’s frankly fucked up version of their lives, in which their mutual suicides are presented as the pinnacle of romantic love. To Juliet, Shakespeare’s version is “more real” than the lives they are living, which have been compromised by everyday challenges, including taking care of their infant daughter, Sophie, which seems to be largely Juliet’s responsibility. Desperate for escape, Juliet insists that she and Romeo repeatedly enact Shakespeare’s version of their deaths, but Romeo is tired of coming home and finding her dead in different positions.

This critique of Romeo and Juliet’s framing of romance is not fresh, but it is impactfully embodied here. And, in its final beats, Juliet & Romeo delivers some formal surprises.

Overall, it’s a good reminder to to keep living real life and finding the beauty — and romance — in that.

JULIET & ROMEO Conceived and directed by Ben Duke. Devised by Ben Duke and Solène Weinachter. A Lost Dog production. Running at The Cultch’s Historic Theatre until May 3. Tickets and information.

PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of John Kendall and Emily Terndrup by Paul Blakemore)

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