NTC’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ shines at dusk

Marilyn LaRocque

Thursday, June 20, 2002 | 8:27 a.m.

What could be more romantic than "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare's tragedy of star-crossed lovers, played under the stars? The Nevada Theatre Company will perform the classic at Gardens Park beginning tonight and running through Saturday.

Deanna Duplechain, artistic director of NTC, is directing a cast of appropriately youthful actors recruited both locally and from across the country. She said she is excited about inaugurating NTC'S "Shakespeare Under the Stars" and says she believes locals will support the event.

"Forty percent of the audience at the Utah Shakespearean Festival is from Las Vegas," she said. "So a lot of people here want to see Shakespeare. Las Vegans love relaxing outside in the evening. We're making Shakespeare accessible in a setting where they like to be on a summer night. 'Romeo and Juliet' is very sexy, very passionate. It comes to life beneath the stars.

"We get to the essence of the play. It does not depend on location and stage sets, and ours are very minimalistic. People should bring their imaginations. The play is very actor-driven and gets its power from Shakespeare's words."

"Romeo and Juliet" celebrates youthful passion with lyric eloquence. Unlike Shakespeare's "King Lear" or "Othello," in which a tragic personality flaw dooms the principal character, the tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet" is precipitated by external forces, a long-standing blood feud between the lovers' families.

To recap: Two families in Verona, Italy, the Montagues and Capulets, are constantly warring. Romeo is a Montague. Juliet is a Capulet. They meet, fall in love and are secretly married by Friar Laurence, all within a couple of days. But Fate intervenes. Tybalt, a Capulet, kills Mercutio, a friend of Romeo's. Romeo slays Tybalt. Although the ruling Prince spares Romeo's life, he banishes him from Verona, and from Juliet.

A family arranged marriage for Juliet to Paris, a young nobleman, forces the couple to action. The Friar makes a potion that will fake death for Juliet, and then she and Romeo can flee to Mantua once she wakes up. However, news of the plan does not reach Romeo, already in Mantua. He hears Juliet is dead, finds her seemingly lifeless body in her family tomb and kills himself with poison. She awakens, sees him dead and stabs herself.

Ian Unterman, portraying Romeo, wants to be an actor but hedged his career bets while at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, majoring in business and minoring in drama so he would have a fall-back position if he didn't make it in acting.

He says Romeo's youth and naivete are partly what lead to his tragedy.

"He's a teenage boy," Unterman said. "He 'feels' everything and reacts emotionally, not rationally. He has false, sweeping emotions. He's moody and overly dramatic. If he were older, more mature, more experienced, he would not make some of the decisions he makes. Romeo truly believes he has a timeless bond with Juliet. But their impetuousness leads to tragedy."

Unterman will go to New York City this summer and is prepared to be unemployed, at least until September, when he will start work on an independent film, "Anjtz," written and directed by Paul Wagner, an Academy Award and Emmy winner for his documentaries.

Renee Brna, portraying Juliet, noted that Juliet is also a headstrong teen.

"She's strong willed, a very extreme young girl, trapped in a family that wants her to marry someone she doesn't love," Brna said. "She sees Romeo as a way out, and she proposes to him."

Brna said she didn't like "Romeo and Juliet" until she began working on it.

"I always thought it was about infatuation and that bothered me," she said. "But it is so much bigger than a simple story. It expresses the essence of love that drives you to an extreme you never think you'll go to. It is incredible to see that type of passion."

Brna also remarked that dialogue cuts make scenes move faster, so the play runs only two hours. She said people sometimes are intimidated by Shakespeare.

"They don't understand what he's saying," she said. "Especially the Elizabethan English. It's almost like watching a foreign film. Understand through body language, gestures, touching, not just the words. Go to have a good time and lose yourself in the play."

In true Elizabethan fashion, prior to curtain time there will be a greenshow, with performers playing period musical instruments and dancing.