© John Ross Bolshoi 'Romeo' reviews Meskova in reviews Godovsky in reviews recent Bolshoi reviews more Renee Renouf reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

The Donnellan/Poklitaru production has quite a bit going for it along with the flaws of exaggerated adolescent behavior. The corps de ballet is used effectively, frequently with brilliance; the talent and general youth of the casting not only apparent, but justified. The tone is Eastern European contemporary drab.

This is not the Bolshoi remembered from the regal superstars of the late ‘Forties, ‘ Fifties and early ‘Sixties. Several of those lustrous alumnae of the Bolshoi are listed as coaches of the dancers seen in the November 4 performance; Ludmila Semenyaka; Boris Akimov; Mikhail Lavrovsky. The coach credits should send a prime signal for American companies how artistry and tradition are fostered.

Other preliminaries relate to Eastern European culture, climate and history. The artists and choreographers grew up and work in a harsh climate, amid vast bureaucracies and a society where everyone, I am given to understand, watches everyone else. Faithfully reflected in Romeo and Juliet, accenting the watchful, hindering aspects of collective mores, the ballet possesses some biting sarcasm. These givens illumine the use of the corps, though the extreme jutting derrieres and gyrating hips in clothing suggesting the most superficial, slick and snobbish mores of society could be minimized. It’s an excellent fit, if lacking the panache of Hans Van Manen’s Black Cake.

The use of movable blocks as settings, their manipulation and as balconies is a nice touch. The corps’ opening dances only slowly builds to violence, concentrating on repetitive movements in two groups; only at the end, where switchblades appear, does the story cohere to Shakespeare. A clear expression of contemporary society is the lack of an authority figure to condemn the killing; both sides simply disappear, leaving two victims upstage center, presenting a society lacking social controls.
 

I found the missing Nurse a deficit. She is a bridging figure, a source of warmth, a contrast against the cocktail chic of Lady Capulet whom Maria Volodina demonstrates all too clearly with the hots she has for Tybalt, a stocky, effective Alexander Petukhov, mean and predatory. Anastasia Meskova’s appealing Juliet is marred because she presents as a hoyden, leaping onto her father’s back, indicating the ties and privileges she enjoys as Daddy’s girl. This interpretation echoes Yuri Grigorovich’s earlier production. Such connection provides Juliet with a certain assurance and boldness for her subsequent actions.

The bond between Romeo (Yan Godovsky) and Mercutio (Yuri Klevtsov) is well delineated in the three major sequences, before the ballet, during the ball when Mercutio appears in drag and after his fatal stabbing by Tybalt. One of the brilliant sequences in the ballet, Tybalt has the hots for the masked Mercutio, interrupted in his pursuit by the jealousy of Lady Capulet; his revulsion on discovering he kissed a man in masquerade heightened by audible laughter from the guests; all played with great gusto and authority. It provides heavy motivation for the fatal duel.

I only wish the Romeo-Juliet encounter had played as well. The young lovers were given severe cases of St. Vitus’ dance, doubtless meant to convey inner trembling and tsunamic emotion. Alas, save for the intriguing use of the corps de ballet in the balcony scene where the fated couple struggle with the confines of the collective, visually and physically depicted with their physical restraint by a cadre corps members with each lover, both music and individual movement is thrown away, replaced by posturing and motions aimed at conveying the inarticulate, clumsy awareness of the adolescent. Godovsky and Meskova are very likeable, appealing young lovers.

The wedding scene also was equally an anomaly because of the portrayal of Friar Lawrence. Not only does he appear blind, but his hand gestures to convey some kind of verbal guidance were accented by Tuyl Eulenspiegel postures. Was this intended to convey that as a blind religious he was impervious to the implications of his act in transcending Verona’s social enmities ? But the wedding scene was sufficiently long that we two adolescents morphing into young adults.

Nothing was lacking in the Mercutio-Tybalt fight scene; clearly one the most coherent parts of the ballet. Besides the fight itself, the set and deployment of the corps as onlookers, darting, up and down movements suggesting shifting positions of a watching crowd in Verona’s square. was tremendously exciting. Pokilaru here was right on. Even Romeo’s multiple stabbings of Tybalt was in key, if overdrawn.
 

The bedroom scene was equally brilliant, particularly in the use of the sheet to entwine the young couple and to restrain Juliet. The corps also dominates the Capulet family feud over Juliet’s wedding to Paris; unless mistaken, the musical development was tampered with, using the corps with the music intended for Juliet’s friends on the dawn of Paris-Juliet nuptials.

In the scene with Friar Lawrence, his strange deportment is repeated while he seems to provide her with cocaine which she licks from her hand, rather than drinking. I wondered whether Donnellan and Pokilaru were again impatient with traditional details. The corps lifted the drugged Juliet on to the bed, covering her as if in a morgue.

There was little clue how Romeo found Juliet. After threading through the corps, there is no fatal fight with Paris, no taking of poison, but an extravagant exposition of Romeo’s grief rarely demonstrated in the West. Both lovers die by stabbing; in the end the audience saw two bodies on a white double bed.

Monday quarterback style, would I want to see the production again? Yes, I would.