(l to r) Conor Donahue, Michael Bannigan, Parker Damm. Sam Cure, (lying down.) Photo provided by Vagabond Players.
I went into this production knowing nothing about it. I knew it was based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” and that this classic story is reimagined by Joe Calarco and it is set a modern Catholic Boys School but in an unspecified time. Vagabond’s production, directed by Jennifer M. Spieler, contains a cast of only 4 exceptional young men that, to me, is one of the main reasons that live theatre can be so beautiful and exhilarating because young people are invested in producing great theatre.
Please don’t miss this show. We owe it to ourselves to enjoy 4 hard working actors make magic on the stage.
It is true that these young men need words to achieve this goal, and Calarco’s words do intertwine with Shakespeare’s well, but these actors opened themselves to a level of vulnerability that transcended the words on the page.
These four young men do it all. In this school, Shakespeare seems to be on the taboo list for these young learners, so instead of sneaking out of their dorms to drink or smoke, they retrieve a well-used copy of Shakespeare’s plays from its hiding place and begin to play the roles in “Romeo & Juliet.” Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” is a story of two wealthy and powerful families, Montague and Capulet, who are at war with each other. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet and they meet and fall in love. The war between their families means nothing to them and they marry. The ending isn’t happy, this is why “Romeo & Juliet” is Shakespeare’s most known tragedy.
Michael Bannigan is Student 1 and is also Romeo. Reading his bio he is still in college at Towson University as a theater major, and I can believe it because he looks young but his acting ability is far, far beyond his years. I’m very impressed and I have seen Shakespeare produced on stage for over 25 years. Let’s face it, Shakespeare is hard, and he nails it.
Student 3, Conor Donahue, plays Mercutio, Lady Capulet, Fr. Laurence, etc. Donahue is able to slip from one character to another with ease and believability. I think Mercutio is one of the best Shakespeare characters, he gets to rant and rave and be wonderfully wild and Donahue does this character justice.
Student 2 (Juliet, Benvolio, Fr. John, etc.) is all played by Sam Cure and Student 4 (Tybalt, Nurse, Balthasar, etc.) is Parker Damm. Both actors are exceptional and Damm as the Nurse is hilarious.
The only other props are 4 chairs and a red scarf that is used to show a dress, a knife, a bottle of poison and more. The set’s backdrop (Moe Conn) is brick and dark green walls that as soon as I walked in say repressed Catholic school. The fights are smooth and well-paced thanks to Jonathan Ezra Rubin as the fight/intimacy director.
“R & J” is filled with angst and homoerotic energy. Student 3 and 4 continually insert themselves between Romeo (Student 1) and Juliet (Student 2) to try to control the growing feelings between the two. Do they pull them apart because they think these feelings are wrong or are they feeling them themselves?
Please don’t miss this show. We owe it to ourselves to enjoy 4 hard working actors make magic on the stage.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours with one intermission.
Advisory: Adult themes.
“R & J” plays through September 30, 2018, at Vagabond Players. Click here for tickets.
