Romeo & Juliet Reviews
REVIEWED BY: John Daly-Peoples, NBR
Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North 18 July 2008
With Romeo and Juliet the Royal New Zealand Ballet have surpassed themselves in delivering a world class performance brilliantly conceived and given contemporary relevance.
The story of two young people caught in the danger zone between two warring families of Verona, the Capulets and Montagues is one of the great love stories and in this production it is set firmly within a real social and political world.
When it was premiered in the 1930’s the story of family rivalry was a metaphor for the internecine struggles between the various factions of both Russian music and politics in general.
Today it reflects some of the religious and social problems which exist such as arranged marriages, honour killings and turf wars. These act as a backdrop to the story as well as providing motivations for the characters.
This production is a clever mix of massed crowd scenes, small ensemble groups and couples. This contrast between the various social groupings allows for a range of dance from the formal to the intimate and highlights the skills of a number of the company’s dancers.
The small corps de ballet produce some fine massed sequences such as the Act II square scene where they effortlessly move from classical dance to folk routine and then to the eloquence of everyday movement.
In the ballroom scene their elegant formal dancing acts as a contrast to the individual vigorous movement of Romeo and his friends.
Kate Hurst-Saxon’s created a totally believable Juliet who must change over the course of the ballet. Her dancing evolved from an initial childlike simplicity to the languorous, the semi erotic and finally a taut discordant display.
When she first meets Romeo she performs an intriguing dance of the eyes as she tracks him, about the room here eyes flitting nervously in a scene ripe with tension. When she eventually dances with Romeo they create a dance of superb fluency and sensitivity.
Qi Huan as Romeo danced his opening scene with his mated Mercutio and Benvolio in a lively animated style before a change of pace once he has encountered Juliet. His change in pace, subdued softer movement help convey his melancholic condition.
Together the principals produce some superb duos which are eloquent in their expression of love from the simple glances of attraction to the physically sensual.
In Act III Romeos dance with the sleeping Juliet, who he believes to be dead is poignant and tender as he tries to invest her with life.
The most entertaining of the dancers was Jo Funaki as Mercutio. His impish cavorting as he taunts Tybalt combined athleticism and an engaging comic routine which received well deserved applause
Sir John Trimmer is often used as an elegant moving ornament but in this production he performs a crucial role in dancing the role of Friar Lawrence.
He gives the part dignity making a strong with the contrasts with the dancers.
He also had a strong presence the opening scene looking like a super Don as the Mayor of Verona.
Lucy Balfour as Lady Capulet gave a well measured performance but in Act II when mourning of over the death of her lover (and nephew) Tybalt she produced a solo dance which was riveting. With frantic movements she generated an image of a passionate deranged woman which was spine-tingling.
Turid Revfeim as the nurse gives an effective performance providing a sense of divided loyalty between Juliet and her parents with clear movements and gestures.
The set which moves from the public to private spaces is a stylish mix of old Verona and the contemporary with some surreal elements derived form the Italian artist de Chirico.
The costumes are fairly eclectic with guys in cool white suits and others done up like Genoese pirates or Otara hommies. The ravishing costumes for the ball however didn’t really work with the dancers looking as though they had been shipped in from the set of Can Can.
Prokofiev's music for the ballet is one of the most engaging and dramatic ballet scores of all time and can enhance the ballet’s emotional tone. The Vector Wellington Orchestra under conductor Michael Lloyd was able to bring the music to life in a thrilling performance.
REVIEWED BY: Bernadette Ray, NZ Herald
Aotea Centre, Auckland, Wednesday 23 July 2008
This Romeo and Juliet, minted in 2003 by Christopher Hampson for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in its 50th jubilee year, was a triumph here and in England, where it received a Laurence Olivier nomination for Best New Dance Production.
It surpasses itself in this return season. Tracy Grant Lord's design is dramatically riveting. The huge set of flat planes and hard surfaces revolves between black and white, symbolic of the light but mostly dark sides of life in feud-worn Verona, watched over by a huge and pock-marked moon.
Costumes, in spivvy 50s Italian high fashion style are also mostly dark, white for the innocence of Romeo and Juliet, then slashed with flashes of scarlet that sing of direst passion and the spilling of blood.
There is the grand music and the Auckland Philharmonia does Prokofiev proud.
Jo Funaki's Mercutio and Jacob Chown's Benvolio drew accolades on opening night and a good-natured booing for Brendan Bradshaw's Paris, after a refined and controlled performance, reflected the power of the story telling.
Then there is the brilliance of the stars, Amy Hollingsworth as Juliet, and Cameron McMillan as her Romeo. Hollingsworth is at the height of her powers, and that power might seem initially at odds with the expectation of a nubile, perhaps childlike Juliet. But there is no discrepancy, in fact it makes far more sense, as she develops her feisty and passionate Juliet, as self determining as it is possible to be under the vengeful circumstances.
Sheer talent prevails. There are moments when a performance pierces all the senses with its magic. Hollingsworth, perfectly matched by McMillan, does just that in the balcony duet at the end of the first act.
She is pointe perfect in her technique, so powerful she holds the whole auditorium on the flutter of her breath, each movement of her lean-to-the-extreme body speaking volumes.
Never was a story of so much woe so beautifully danced with such intelligence and passion.
REVIEWED BY: Richard Mays, Theatreview
Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North, Friday 18 July 2008
Opulence, decadence, action, and a whiff of Armani provided the stylish setting for this vivid extravaganza of movement, colour, coordination, and characterisation. It's not often the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company comes to Palmerston North with an orchestra, and for the city to host a season premiere is even rarer. The only downside to Friday evening's opening of Romeo and Juliet was the unavailability of returning overseas star Amy Hollingsworth through injury, and therefore her dance partner Cameron McMillan.
In their place Qi Huan and Katie Hurst-Saxton were commendable as the world's most famous ill-starred lovers. Hurst-Saxton brought wide-eyed youthful innocence, grace, and a touch of willfulness to her role, with Huan allowed his move-over-Dan-Carter moment during the semi-clad bedroom scene. If anything, this "boxer-shorts pas de deux" gave the audience an eye-opening insight into the outstanding physical conditioning required to be a dancer at this level.
Jo Funaki's impish and acrobatic Mercutio was a crowd-pleaser as he tested and teased the menacing Tybalt of Paul Matthews, although unlike Tybalt, he spent a long time a-dying. Fought with knives, metal bars, baseball bats, and quickstep agility, the street brawls were among the choreographed highlights. They were matched by the set piece eloquence of the grand masked ball to Prokofiev's imposingly redolent theme. The level of playing throughout from the Vector Orchestra echoed the overall excellence of the production.
For all its style and sophistication, Verona is alive with dark undercurrents, and this production captured its edgy nuances . There were hints of domestic violence, as Lord and Lady Capulet resorted to threatening behaviour against their daughter when she refuses to accept Paris as her suitor. There's an adulterous liaison between Lady Capulet and Tybalt, and roaming thugs who are not averse to wrecking a neighbourhood street wedding during a stoush.
Tracy Lord Grant's contemporary design allowed the scenes to flow, and gave the dancers interesting spaces and levels where they could retell this timeless story in avant-garde couture, and heels.
In 2005, the previous (2003) incarnation of this production was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Production after its successful tour of the UK. By all recollections, this is at least that show's equal - and probably its superior. This Romeo and Juliet is sexy, accessible and engaging. Magnificent.
REVIEWED BY: Jennifer Shennan, Dominion Post
St James Theatre, Wellington, Wednesday 20 August 2008
Star-crossed and superb lovers
Romeo and Juliet is the famous ill-fated love story, but there's a happier affair going on in this production as well, between choreographer Christopher Hampson and the composition of Sergei Prokofiev. Every phrase is caught, and thought through.
Seasoned ballet conductor Michael Lloyd draws atmospheric sounds of lyrical strings and rich percussion from the Vector Wellington Orchestra, and the stunning mobile set design by Tracy Grant Lord, lit by John Rayment, ensures that the 600-year-old setting in Verona of a 400-year-old play has all the authority of an ancient dukedom in turmoil, yet the story's style and impact is contemporary.
It's all the fault of the Duke of Verona; he should have insisted on curfews instead of accepting lip service that all is well. But then Friar Lawrence, too, should have known he was playing dangerous games. The fact that both these roles are played with spare but loaded gestures by Jon Trimmer is a masterstroke of casting innuendo.
In the role of Mercutio, Jo Funaki has the character of his career. His split-milli- second timing and loveable if cocky bravura become the very personification of life. We want him to be around forever – his undoing is unbearable, and Prokofiev doesn't rush that one bar. But from now on there'll be hell to pay.
The love dances for the leading couple are given sublime performances by Amy Hollingsworth and Cameron McMillan, former members of RNZB returning as guest artists. Hollingsworth would be one of the spunkiest and best dancers around and it was a revelation to follow here the dramatic use she made of her wide range of dance experience in portraying Juliet. Her unique epaulement, a kind of angling with the torso, gave subtle expression to all her emotional turmoil.
McMillan, another unforgettable dancer, gave a poetic and beautifully judged interpretation. As a couple they danced superbly and all the considerable technical challenges were masked from view. Clytie Campbell as the poisonous Lady Capulet is a knockout, Vivencio Samblaceno as Lord Capulet, torn apart with frustrations, is likewise.
It's a night of superb theatre: see it and rejoice in the calibre of the national ballet company. They have won gold.On the way home, an enormous fractured moon in a calm and freezing Wellington night seemed to have witnessed what we had seen. I think Amy and Cameron had stopped it in its tracks.