Romeo and Juliet by Hannah

Possibly one of my favorite On Stage performances I’ve seen, The Aquila Theatre Company’s version of Romeo and Juliet definitely went beyond any expectations that I could have had. I’ve seen many versions of Romeo and Juliet, from the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes to my brother’s 8th grade abridged production, so I wasn’t sure if this performance would captivate my attention, seeing as I already knew the script. Well when I read about them in the sheet that we got, I was impressed by the fact that all of the actors knew the whole script and traded off parts every time. The production itself though, was far better than I had even hoped for.

It’s really hard to say which one character was my favorite. The actor who played Mercucio and the Mistress was excellently flamboyant and funny. I thought he had a great interpretation of the script, but the actor who played Juliet had such a different interpretation that I’d never seen before. At first I didn’t like the way she was portrayed as kind of a bubbly glitzy teen, but then I began to realize that the reason I didn’t like it was because all the Juliets I had seen before were depressed and dramatic, but when you think about it, Juliet was only fourteen. She probably was a bubbly teenager. Both of those characters were very refreshing and brought a certain light to the stage that I’ve never seen before.

I don’t really think I can say anything specific that was my least favorite aspect of the performance. I think the play was excellently done and I really wouldn’t critique anything. I guess it would’ve been even more original and exciting if there had been different genders for Romeo and/or Juliet since they have been played by their respected gender in all of the productions I have seen. This play has definitely opened my eyes to the fact that there is always more than one way of interpreting a character, and has inspired me to bring out my own uniqueness in the characters that I play.