Bold Choices, Blunted Impact: A Dystopian Romeo and Juliet Lost in Translation
Scholars and critics have long debated the merits of ROMEO AND JULIET. Some celebrate its vision of transcendent love and the beauty of Shakespeare’s language; others point to its improbable timeline – a three-day descent from initial meeting to marriage and, ultimately, tragedy – and the protagonists’ impulsive behavior as evidence of a plot that strains credibility. The debate ultimately hinges on the chemistry between the title characters. When their connection feels urgent and authentic, the romance can eclipse the play’s structural flaws. When it doesn’t, those flaws become impossible to ignore.
In the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival production, directed by festival Artistic Director Jason King Jones, that essential spark is missing. The relationship between Juliet and Romeo lacks the physical and emotional intimacy and believability needed to ground the story, robbing the play of its emotional pulse.
Jones’ decision to set the play in a timeless, Mad Max-like, dystopian world, further contributes to the disconnect. In aiming for relevance, the production adopts a cool detachment that distracts and drains the play of passion. This framing pushes Romeo, played by Austin Nedrow, into a familiar but reductive brooding teen mold, while Maya Jean’s Juliet appears more guarded and aloof than innocent—undercutting the “first love” ignition on which the play depends.
Overall, the casting throughout feels uneven. Some ensemble members beautifully command the language with clarity and confidence; others appear less experienced, often mumbling, speaking in monotone, or conveying only the general mood of a scene rather than the precise meaning of the text.
Among the stronger performances, Suzanne O’Donnell’s Nurse stands out for her deft balance of humor and grounded moral insight. Maboud Ebrahimzadeh and Cassia Thompson capture the rigidity and self absorption of Lord and Lady Capulet, and Doug Hara offers a thoughtful Friar Lawrence whose misguided hope for reconciliation drives his choices.
Scenic designer Brian Sidney Bembridge offers a utilitarian structure that is competent but conceptually muddled, gesturing vaguely toward the past while sprinkling in futuristic touches that never fully cohere. Costume designer Nancy L. Leary’s work spans an apparent 300 year time frame, but the mash ups of historical silhouettes with imagined future wear often feel arbitrary rather than purposeful, creating visual noise instead of meaning.
The temporally dislocated setting also exposes the play’s long standing structural challenges. In an age of instant, digital communication, the delayed message that triggers the tragedy feels implausible. Violence that once signified honor now resembles street crime or paramilitary threat. And the teenagers’ intense infatuation reads less as epic passion and more as toxic co-dependence—an effect the production unintentionally heightens.
Is ROMEO AND JULIET a romance, a meditation on the universality of intolerance, or a plea for forgiveness? Many argue its power lies in the language itself—and it is there, along with the choice to modernize the setting, that this production falters, leaving it stranded in an unsatisfying middle ground.
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Review submitted by:
Franklin Joseph
Author’s Bio:
Franklin Joseph is an avid theatre goer who takes delight in the active theatre arts community of the southeast Pennsylvania region.
