Philadelphia Weekly

If like most theatergoers you have routinely found yourself bored by conventional productions of William Shakespeare's plays, rush to Mauckingbird Theatre Company's explosive production of Joe Calarco's R&J, a unique play within a play.

At the outset of R&J, Calarco introduces us to four teenage boys at an authoritarian prep school that enforces antiquated views of sex and gender. In a steamer trunk, the students have hidden a copy of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, which for them has the allure of an illicit text, an irresistible mix of lust and violence that provides an escape from the rigors of their repressive education. Portraying all the characters in Shakespeare's play, the students enact a clandestine performance of Romeo and Juliet, transporting themselves (and us) into a world of swordfights and forbidden love.

Highlighting the musicality of Shakespeare's prose (R&J employs not only the Romeo and Juliet text but also excerpts from Shakespeare's sonnets and A Midsummer Night's Dream), director Peter Reynolds elicits natural performances from his four-member cast, each of whom are equally adept at playing the nameless students as they are the characters in Romeo and Juliet.

The rambunctious tribe of school chums are Student 1 (Evan Jonigkeit), Student 2 (Conrad Ricamora), Student 3 (Newton Buchanan) and Student 4 (Nicholas Park). Jonigkeit gives a sexually charged performance as Romeo. Ricamora's portrayal of Juliet is almost frightening in its intensity. Buchanan's finger-snapping Lady Capulet is as fabulous as she is memorable. Park gives a discerning performance as Juliet's devoted Nurse. As an ensemble, they transform into as compelling a group as Shakespeare's already well-known citizens of Verona.

Under Reynolds' insightful direction, R&J emerges as a riveting investigation of what it means to be a man in a society that views sensitivity, bonding and empathy as exclusively female attributes. Theatrically enterprising (the play's only props are the aforementioned trunk, two plain boxes and a brilliantly utilized swath of red cloth), Calarco's play is sexually charged without becoming overtly homoerotic. Though we are at first acutely aware we are watching young males performing Shakespeare, by the end gender is a non-issue.

When Juliet kisses her dead lover in a desperate attempt to share the poison on Romeo's lips, we've become so involved in the students' performance that it's impossible for us not to be moved by the depth of Juliet's devotion and despair.

In R&J Calarco succeeds in giving us a Romeo and Juliet for the 21st century. When the students' impromptu staging of Romeo and Juliet abruptly concludes with the school bell and the student-actors return to reality, the awakening sexuality revealed in the boys' passionate performance of Shakespeare's tragedy is as palatable as the forbidden love declared by the Bard's original "star-cross'd lovers."

footlights

The Arden Theatre Company and Walnut Street Theatre grabbed the lion's share of nominations when the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia announced the nominees for the 2008 Barrymore Awards for excellence in theater. The two Center City companies shared top billing with 16 nominations each, followed by the People's Light & Theatre Company and Philadelphia Theatre Company (with 12 nominations each) and Theatre Exile, which earned 11 nominations. Among productions of musicals, the Walnut's impressive staging of Les Miserables led the way with 11 nominations, followed by the Arden's effectively disturbing production of Assassins and the upstart Azuka Theatre's marvelous production of the rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. In the straight play category, Theatre Exile's frightening staging of Tracy Letts' psycho-thriller Bug, People's Light's thoughtful production of Luigi Pirandello's masterpiece Six Characters in Search of an Author and the Wilma Theater's visually dazzling production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice shared the top slot with seven nominations each. The winners will be announced at the Gala Barrymore Awards Ceremony, which takes place Oct. 6 at the Crystal Tea Room in Center City. Information on the Gala and a complete list of nominees is available at the Theatre Alliance's website. (J.C.R.)