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Romeo and Juliet

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Chris Abraham

Starring Michelle Monteith and Matthew Fyfe

At Fairy Lake in Newmarket, Ont.

Rating: **½

The rapidly expanding Resurgence Theatre Company's York Shakespeare Festival in Newmarket, Ont., north of Toronto, is only in its fourth season, but already it's a pretty slick affair by the standards of most Bard-in-the-park events. This summer, on a set of Italianate ruins among the willow trees on the shores of Fairy Lake, it is presenting a highly competent if not particularly inspired version of Romeo and Juliet directed by Toronto's Chris Abraham.

The approach is conventional but energetic, as a brisk cast in simplified Elizabethan dress scamper on and off the palazzo cleverly designed by Vin Bolton and James Cameron to look as though it might be an ancient, crumbling folly, while the audience watches from bleachers, protected from the elements by a tent. In this setting, Abraham can make many pretty pictures from the brawling fights of Montagues and Capulets to the gloomy crypt where Romeo and Juliet exchange their final kisses. Still, he does occasionally suffer from the lack of focus that often plagues outdoor theatre as scenes like the Capulets' ball seem to dribble off into the surrounding greenery without firmly establishing the magic of the lovers' first encounter.

As Romeo, Matthew Fyfe tends to flatten his lines with a glaringly contemporary accent. But his physical acting, from the ambling and posing teenager inventing clichéd rhymes to celebrate his love for Rosaline to the desperate youth banished from Verona, creates a vibrant image of teenage emotions.

Michelle Monteith's Juliet is stronger still: She's a young actress who rejoices in childlike looks and her skipping, baby-voiced girl is very clearly the 13-year-old unready to consider marriage to Paris. But, unusually for most young Juliets so often too green to do justice to the depth of the role, she manages beautifully the descent into desperate love, hinting at the death wish underneath the adolescent passion. If one doesn't always feel the connection between this pair, it is more due to Abraham's inability to keep the production taut as the action wears on, than to any particular failing of the performers.

This show needs more of the intensely focused and darkly manic work that Andrew Pifko produces in the role of a glib and giddy Mercutio delivering the Queen Mab speech from the branches of a tree. Indeed, the standard of performance is high enough throughout that one should be able to demand more interpretation from the actors: What is missing is some explanation of the relationship between Irene Poole's fierce Lady Capulet and Derek Boyes's cheerful version of her husband or some examination of the fatal foolishness that lies behind the actions of Christopher Kelk's firm Friar Lawrence and Lynne Griffin's ebullient Nurse.

It's rare that outdoor Shakespeare is performed smoothly enough that subtly of interpretation even seems possible: Resurgence is tantalizingly close to an impressive achievement here.
Romeo and Juliet continues to Aug. 20 at Fairy Lake in downtown Newmarket, Ont. For more information call: 905-954-1571.