Margin Notes: Romeo and Juliet

Nicholas Amodio, Sandy Gladstone-Karpe, and Christine
Newberry as Romeo, Friar Lawrence, and Juliet. Photo by
Zui Gomez.

Romeo and Juliet

Seen on: Sunday, 11/12/23.

Plot and Background

EPIC Players presents a contemporary lens on Shakespeare's classic tragedy about the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, whose passion is not enough to survive their feuding families. EPIC Players is NYC's premiere neurodivergent theater company.

What I Knew Beforehand

I knew Romeo and Juliet, of course, and that EPIC Players is a neurodivergent theater company.

Thoughts:

Concept-wise, I think directors Max Baudisch and Meggan Dodd's vision is strong and cohesive: this is a world mirroring our world today, where the geopolitical conflicts are presented in soothing-voiced podcasts, and debated online in pithy 280-character hot takes and inflammatory videos posted out of context. This is a world where the Nurse (a brassy and delightful Sandy Gladstone-Karpe) can scroll through a Hot Men of Verona dating app, where Mercutio can post a dis video, and where the answering retort is a selfie of a Capulet biting his thumb. And in a world like this, it makes all too much sense for the duel between Mercutio (a seedily charismatic Miles Butler) and Tybalt (a full-voiced, 'roided up Dante Jayce) to be fought with extended selfie sticks--until Tybalt breaks out a weapon dealing more lasting damage than a tweet or a reel. There is even thought put into how, in a world of instant information via smartphone, both Romeo and Juliet miss some crucial status updates as the story veers toward its tragic end.

Weekly Margin 2023, W44: Sabbath's Theater, Nosferatu, a 3D Symphony of Horror

 10/24/23: Sabbath's Theater

What: The New Group presents Ariel Levy and John Turturro's adaptation of Philip Roth's novel, about a sex-crazed puppeteer with arthritis who is sent into a suicide ideating tailspin after the deaths of his longtime lover and an old friend.

And? While the three actors were very effective, and the exploration of loss and what it is to be left behind, repeatedly, by those who love you, was interesting, I think this show and this story are ultimately not for me. Which is fine.

10/28/23: Nosferatu, a 3D Symphony of Horror

What: Theater in Quarantine, in conjunction with Skirball, presents a virtual theatrical reimagining of the 1922 film, complete with 3D glasses mailed to all ticket holders.

And? Joshua William Gelb really feels like a once in a generation theatrical mind. This 35-minute performance, still all contained within TiQ's white closet, is evocative, clever, spooky, and somehow truly magical. And with the use of a sound design specifically for people wearing headphones--reminiscent of the work of Complicité--it's transportive.

Weekly Margin 2023, W43: The Laramie Project, Poor Yella Rednecks, Othello

 10/16/23: The Laramie Project

What: Symphony Space hosts a benefit reading of Tectonic Theater Project's seminal docuplay about the town of Laramie, Wyoming in the wake of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard.

And? No piece of art exists in a vacuum. There is always context. The context of when the art was made, the context of now, this living moment when the art is being experienced, the context of the audience engaging with the art. So it is that we hear the words of the people of Laramie twenty-five years ago, and can think about the progress made for legal protections for queer people, as well as the terrifying regressions in more recent years, as queer and trans youth in particular are targeted by the government. And to see this play a week after the massacre in Israel, I cannot help but pair the description of the inhumane brutality inflicted on Matthew Shepard with what is happening there. The bewilderment that people can do these terrible things to someone else because of a deep-seated but hauntingly impersonal hatred. Zubaida Ula reminds us all, "We need to own this crime. I feel. Everyone needs to own it. We are like this. We ARE like this. WE are LIKE this."

10/17/23: Poor Yella Rednecks

What: Manhattan Theatre Club presents a new play by Qui Nguyen, a sequel to his celebrated Vietgone. Poor Yella Rednecks has the playwright looking back on his childhood in El Dorado, Arkansas, and the sacrifices and struggles his mother endured in order to succeed in a land where she barely speaks the language.

And? I hadn't realized this was a sequel, and it really made me regret having missed Vietgone. However, this play definitely stands on its own. It's an impressive mix of satire, hip hop, puppetry, and a moving tribute to the playwright's mother and grandmother. The cast is all largely excellent (though not always up to the challenge of the hip hop sections), but I want to pay special note to the women: Maureen Sebastian as Qui's mother Tong, whose steady presence and emotional range carry and center the play; and Samantha Quan, who plays a variety of roles, each with distinct voices and physicalities, such that you forget it's all one actor. Her performance as Qui's grandmother Huong is especially powerful (and hilarious). Tim Mackabee's scenic design is a bit cumbersome (and, at least at the preview I attended, they aren't locking the rolling pieces, so we can see them move slightly when the cast interacts with them), but it doesn't ultimately get in the way of what is a good play well-performed. 

Ben Levin and Jon Norman Schneider as Bully and Little Man. Photo by
Jeremy Daniel.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• National Theatre Live's Othello.

Weekly Margin 2023, W41: Bloodshot

 10/03/23: Bloodshot

What: She NYC Arts presents a new play by Elinor T. Vanderburg, imaging a city where an epidemic has eradicated sleep. As citizens cope with unending days and nights, a new alarming pattern emerges when people begin to spontaneously combust.

And? This was truly special. A noir story, with a jazz quartet providing shrieking underscore throughout. The combination of Vanderburg's poetic yet understated script and and director Nigel Semaj's athletic and dramatic staging provides a truly memorable and haunting show, an exploration of the idea that the only rational response to the increasingly irrational world is self-implosion. The cast isn't always up to the level of Vanderburg's dialogue (excepting Ben Holbrook, the sonorous narrator, whose delivery is as poetic as the world of the play), but they all move exceptionally well, creating vivid stage pictures against Nor Marlow Smith's simple but versatile scenic design. The sound design currently needs a slightly better sound balance of body mics to the band (and accounting for when actors are yelling), but otherwise an exceptional piece of theater and commentary.

Weekly Margin 2023, W40: Death, Let Me Do My Show, Big Trip: Three Love Stories Near the Railroad

9/25/23: Death, Let Me Do My Show

What: Rachel Bloom's new solo show where she contends with her greatest nemesis.

And? I don't really want to spoil this for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but it was a good and interesting time, and very Rachel Bloom about it all. Like her tv series, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, it has the ethos that recovery is not a straight-line process, and everyone's journey is going to be its own unique mess.

Rachel Bloom. Photo by Emilio Madrid.

9/26/23: Big Trip 2: Three Love Stories Near the Railroad

What: La MaMa presents KRYMOV LAB NYC's dual exploration in Big Trip, which combines an adaptation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Three Love Stories Near the Railroad.

And? full review here

Foreground: Tim Eliot, Annie Hägg, Jeremy Radin, and Shelby Flannery.
Background: Kwesiu Jones and Erich Rausch. Photo by Steven Pisano.