How does the best-known play in Western culture, renowned for the complexities of Shakespearian speech, succeed as a word-free ballet? Can a company of Russian dancers convey the story that Shakespeare intended?
The St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre explored these questions Wednesday at the CFA on the Mainstage Theater with their adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet," created by ballet director, Sergei Prokofiev.
Without "Wherefore art thou Romeo..." and "A plague on both your houses!" the ballet cannot match the play's dramatic intensity. Yet expressing this story of fate and love through dance has advantages over a conventional play format.
The audience's attention is not always focused on a single character speaking and acting. Instead, the background characters of the ballet characterize the scenery, providing mood and context for the main love story.
As for the story itself, the scenes of the ballet correspond to all the main events of the play. The ballet opens with a prologue that is expressed by the dancers playing Romeo and Juliet. The dance covers the story from their meeting at the ball to their death. The balcony scene, the wedding, the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, the fatal misunderstanding, and final tragedy are all included.
Any high school student who has studied "Romeo and Juliet" knows that fate is the play's main theme. While Shakespeare assigns certain minor characters, such as the friar, apothecary, and prince, to be the agents of fate, this production simplifies the theme by making fate a character in the form of Queen Mab.
This change has interesting consequences. With no apothecary to sell Romeo the poison, it is Mab who gives him a "kiss of death" to symbolize his fateful choice. It is Mab who provides Juliet with a dagger.
Queen Mab appears only briefly in Shakespeare's play, as a figurative character imagined by Mercutio when analyzing Romeo's situation. In the ballet, she becomes one of the main players, intervening in every scene where fate is a deciding factor. It is Mab who gives Romeo a mask, prompting him to go to the Capulet ball, and it is she who brings the sword that kills Mercutio and Tybalt.
Queen Mab stole the show. In every scene decided by fate, Mab's commanding presence was there. Her costume was a very slinky, skin-tight suit and her image was a dominatrix-like figure.
Mab's dancing was exceptional. The dancer had great flexibility and the power to draw the audience's attention even while she was in the background.
Unlike a theater production, the ballet did not have a set, scenery, or any significant props. Instead, costumes and lighting were used to convey the setting. Most of the costumes were red and black, but Romeo and Juliet stood out in white. This distinction set them apart from the background action and symbolized their innocence and youth.
The costumes of the townsfolk varied between renaissance Italian costumes and plain beige leotards. These changes indicated whether the common people were part of the scene, or if they had become "invisible" to Romeo and Juliet through love's blinding power.
The lighting was also used to set the scene. It was most effective during the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt. When there was tension and fighting, the stage was flooded with red light, and when things were calm and peaceful, the lighting was blue. The stage went back and forth between red and blue, as Romeo tried to intervene and pacify the duel.
In the epilogue, the "glooming peace this morning with it brings" was excellently conveyed by both lighting and costume. While Romeo and Juliet lay in the center of the stage, the townsfolk surrounded them in beige, holding small blue lights that produced a very dim glow.
The minimal scenery was highly effective. The heavenly setting for the prologue and epilogue was depicted by a white sheet covering dancers who moved beneath it. The illusion of clouds was quite convincing.
Two swings near the back of the stage served as both the balcony and the tomb, symbolically uniting Romeo and Juliet's love with their death. Queen Mab, as the agent of fate, was often swinging in a pendulum-like seat, as if to say, "It's only a matter of time."
These small details in lighting, costume, scenery, choreography and design combined to make "Romeo and Juliet" an exceptional performance.
