Image from Class Act Theatre.
The artform of hip hop continues to stay fresh and youthfully vibrant as wave after wave of practitioners find new variations to channel their self-expression. Anger, lust, despair, frustration, humour, desperation are all well-served by this lyric-driven, rhythmic musical genre, making it a natural match for one of Shakespeare’s greatest hits.
Class Act Theatre seizes the parallels between hip hop’s driving energetic beats and the world of teenage impetuous action in Verona, to create a surprisingly faithful version of the play. While Director Helen Doig has worked with Musical Directors Trooth and Loftee Beats to develop compelling rap segments that bridge the centuries between the play’s language and modern youth culture, she does not edit the play down to an MTV-style montage for limited attention spans. While the artists play with some words and mannerisms to bring speeches into line with belting beats, Doig chooses to retain many minor speeches that are often redacted.
Nick Pages-Oliver is a compelling Romeo throughout. Humorous, wry, flirtatious, immature and prone to leaping without looking, he radiates a captivating presence that completes the tragedy when passion is thwarted. Maja Liwszyc’s performance as Juliet warms up slowly. Her initial portrayal of a pouting, eye-rolling teen is suppressed by the boisterous comic presence of Stephen Lee’s portrayal of garrulous, witless Nurse and Katya Shevstov’s toe-tapping Lady Capulet. As events develop, Liwszyc’s dramatic intensity ratchets up to enhance Juliet’s desperate confusion.
Daniel Buckle’s energetic Mercutio is nerdy goodness personified, interacting particularly well with Jessica Messenger’s sassy Benvolio, whose part sees a successful gender twist that plays cleverly with many physical comic moments. Josh Walker brings a strutting, confident, darkly possessive Paris to the stage. It would have been good to see more of Tybalt’s smouldering rage from Rubeun Walker, his expression was unfortunately low-key against the vibrant energy of the other cast members, but all the more believable in maintaining the low profile. Sister Laurence brings another gender twist, but one that does not play as well as Nurse or Benvolio in terms of the character’s role. Angelique Malcolm nonetheless has a sharp, practical intelligence that works well against the juvenile histrionics of most other roles. While not playing a big-name part, Lucas Marie brings some impressive dance skills that further ensure energy levels never flag. On such a crowded stage, depicting the Prince by projecting Ryan Samuel’s head onto a makeshift screen is an interesting touch, but those segments could use some tweaks to sound levels to avoid distracting static hiss.
The setting feels cluttered, a derelict inner urban space, further crowded by the device of keeping all ‘spare’ actors sitting around on various discarded items. This works beautifully at times – such as the morning after the party – featuring a chirpy Mercutio, a painfully hung-over Benvolio and a shopping trolley. While it brings a strong party energy to featured speech, rap and dance routines, the constant playing of side parts can be distracting from the main dramatic action, however. Further, despite all players remaining on the stage, there is (at the start of the run) too much lag between scenes and general timing could be tighter. This will probably improve through the coming performances, as will hopefully rapping fluency – on opening night, there were enough stumbles and pauses in the flow of delivery to hope that performers will keep rehearsing for future audiences. Most of the rapping was done well enough to promise exciting experiences soon, but attention needs to be paid to sound levels with some backing tracks drowning out lyrics from un-mic’ed actors.
Less understandable were the handful of fumbled lines in non-rapping sections – for such a well-known play, actors with this cast’s depth of experience should have the Bard’s original words down pat, and this minor irritation was hopefully due to a combination of nerves and issues with stamina, as all players remain acting for the whole two and a half hours of performance.
An ambitious production, Romeo and Juliet with Hip Hop is far more than a student-targeted Shakespeare show with a gimmick. The attention to script detail, the strong human interactions – the Capulet family dynamics, the irrepressible enthusiasm of Romeo, the no-fuss impatience of Sister Laurence – brings new life and hopefully meaning and understanding to not only school-aged audiences but to Shakespearean devotees as well.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Romeo and Juliet with Hip Hop
Presented by Class Act Theatre
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Helen Doig
Music by Trooth and Loftee Beats
Lighting Design by Aaron Stirk
Stage Manager – Craig Williams
Choreographer – Lucas Marie
Video – Zenon Samuels
Performed by Nick Pages-Oliver, Maja Liwszyc, Daniel Buckle, Jessica Messenger, Rubeun Yorkshire, Stephen Lee, Angelique Malcolm, Zane Alexander, Katya Shevtsov, Josh Walker, Lucas Marie and Ryan Samuels
Subiaco Arts Centre, Subiaco
www.classact.com.au
3-13 September 2014
Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, Mandurah
18-19 September
