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How fitting that on April 25, when William Shakespeare makes his debut at Burlington’s newest performance venue, FlynnSpace, it will be with his newest hit play, Shakespeare’s R & J.
And how appropriate that Vermont Stage, resident professional company at the Flynn Center, has hired Angie McIver-Flynn of the National Shakespeare Company to direct this Off-Broadway adaptation of the world’s most enduring love story.
“I’ve directed Romeo and Juliet four times,” says Flynn-McIver, a regular part of Vermont Stage Company’s Young Playwrights Festival. “Now I have a chance to put all that experience into this dynamic re-imagining of the play.”
Set in a contemporary Catholic boys school, Joe Calarco’s Shakespeare’s R & J introduces us to four young men immersed in catechism and Latin. When one of the boys reveals a forbidden text of Romeo and Juliet, they abandon their studies for a clandestine journey into the world of Shakespeare’s ill-fated lovers. Hesitantly at first, then with increased abandon, each boy takes on several roles, acting out the famous story, from its first stolen kiss to its inevitable tragic ending.
“Many people know Romeo and Juliet from the movies,” the director points out, “some from high school reading. With Shakespeare’s R & J, we get the power of the original story and the beauty of its language, mixed with the rumblings and fumblings of contemporary youth. Calarco has found a way to make Shakespeare new, without sacrificing the magic or the majesty.”
Burlington has a long love affair with Shakespeare. For twenty years, the nationally known Champlain Shakespeare Festival thrived at the University of Vermont’s Royall Tyler Theatre. In 1996, Vermont Stage resurrected professional Shakespeare at Royall Tyler with a Bessie award-winning production of Much Ado About Nothing. The company followed with Othello, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and the celebrated production of The Tempest, featuring Burlington’s Taiko Drummers.
“We’ve always had a commitment to the classics,” says VSC Artistic Director, Mark Nash.
“Whether it’s Shakespeare, or Tartuffe, or a “contemporary” classic like Amadeus, we’ve always dedicated a part of each season to period plays with heightened language, plays that celebrate theatre as a spectacle.”
No doubt that long-term commitment came in part from VSC Founding Artistic Director, Blake Robison, who left Vermont Stage in 1998 to direct the National Shakespeare Company in New York City. It was there that Robison met director Angie Flynn-McIver, who will be making her Vermont debut with Shakespeare’s R&J.
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Performances of Shakespeare's R & J run April 25 - 28 and May 3 - 5 at 8 pm with 2 pm matinees on April 29 and May 6. Tickets are available through the Flynn Center box office at 802-86-FLYNN