The Verona Boys' Club: University updates classic tale with testosterone overload

~ University updates a classic tale with testosterone overload

Anyone familiar with William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" -- and who didn't study the classic in high school? -- has met Mercutio, Romeo's playful, hot-tempered buddy who always has a witty quip at the tip of his tongue.

But the Mercutio most people met in high school was never this outrageous. This Mercutio knows no bounds, his hands go where they please and he's animated with lewd gestures. He had only two things on his mind -- sex and fighting.

In a word, he's bawdy. So are the rest of the "Montague Boys" in Southeast Missouri State University's production of "Romeo and Juliet."

With its own spin on the classic tale, the theater and dance department has turned the boys of "Romeo and Juliet" into a "frat pack." They like to party, they scheme on chicks, they get into brawls -- and they love every minute of it.

"What we're going for as far as the guys is very much a 'frat pack'-type thing," said Stephen Fister, a veteran of the Southeast stage who plays Mercutio. "So being in a fraternity myself, I know how guys can act when they get together. And of course, Mercutio is in love with life; he's very energetic."

Energetic is an understatement. Mercutio belches, he farts, he dances around, he stumbles drunk, he leads a gang of party crashers, he grabs himself in inappropriate spots, he fights on a bannister, he's constantly in the vicinity of phallic symbols.

He even feigns sexual acts with his friend Romeo while giving the young lover a lecture on love that's half stand-up comedy, half performance art. Fister's over-the-top stage presence made Desmond Gray, the freshman who plays young Romeo, a bit uncomfortable at first.

"I really had to work up to that," said the somewhat quiet Gray. The freshman actor is a bit more understated and less exhibitionist than his crew. "They're naturally loud and funny and like that, but I think I had to get comfortable with that."

Gray had no choice but to settle in and get comfortable with the piggish nature of his buddies -- nearly the entire first act focuses on the antics of these lust-filled young animals.

"He was kind of shy at first, but we quickly broke him out of that," said Fister.

"Of course there's a certain level of bawdiness that's present the whole time," said Fister. He's right -- this "Romeo and Juliet" would carry at least a PG-13 rating. The first act, as presented by Southeast, is the "American Pie" of Shakespeare.

The effect is totally intended, said Dr. Kenn Stilson, chair of the theater and dance department and director of the production.

"This production is classically set with a modern point of view," said Stilson. "Teenagers haven't changed over the years. People had to grow up faster ... but kids are kids, and hormones are hormones.

"These were rich kids in the most exciting and progressive city in the world at the time. They get in fights, they drink, they crash parties, they fall in love, they fall in lust, they look for trouble."

The first half of the play is bawdy, funny, and most of all, masculine. Where the second act focuses largely on Juliet and her feminine devotion to true love, the first act is a testosterone fest filled with fights and lewd remarks and actions by the boys.

The actors taking part know it, and just like their characters they get excited, especially when it comes to fighting. Throughout the first half there are several large fight scenes where rapiers fly, guys are tackled (including some girls who stand in as men) and codpieces are kicked -- the saloon brawl of the 15th century.

Tony Poston is there to make sure they don't get too rowdy. Poston plays Lord Montague but also serves as the fight captain. His role is basically like that of a sports team captain -- he's there to reinforce the coach, in his case fight director Dr. Robert Dillon Jr.

One of Poston's chief duties is to make sure the boys of "Romeo and Juliet" don't get "red-light fever," a well-known condition among theater combat veterans. In the heat of the pretend battle, actors are at risk of going too far, getting too excited and messing the whole choreographed scene up.

"It's the same thing if you're playing basketball," said Poston. "If you're just shooting around by yourself, no big deal. If you're playing in a stadium full of 10,000 people, you get that extra rush of adrenaline going through you."

Like other aspects of "Romeo and Juliet" the fighting sequences have been a long time in the making. Dillon, who also teaches stage combat, has met with the fighters twice a week since January to perfect the fighting sequences. Dillon sees a strong effect of the "red-light fever" in two actors in particular -- Fister and Larry Lozier, who plays the hot-headed swordplay master Tybalt.

"Larry and Steve, you have to keep pulling them back so they don't hurt themselves," said Dillon. "They get very excited about it. They love it."

Of course, the two have the most exciting fight sequence in the entire play. In a final showdown, they dance across the stage and fight while balancing on the bannisters, which had to be reinforced with steel to accommodate their maneuvers.

Those reinforced barriers are only part of an elaborate set design by guest designer Chris Atkinson, chair of the University of Missour's theater department. Along with a platform and massive columns, Atkinson included three huge "periaktoi" in his design -- large movable units that can be turned to create an illusion of scene change. They're a great asset to a production with several scene changes that require different feels.

Stilson said the greatest strength of the periaktoi is that, like the play, they are both masculine and feminine, with tall columns topped by graceful arches. Depending on the angle, they can be part of a priest's bare chambers or the feminine setting of Juliet's room.

Acting, set, fights -- they're all just small pieces of a large, elaborate production that cost about as much as last year's "Guys and Dolls" and calls on the talents of a cast of 32 and crew of about the same size. All the costumes were completely designed in-house, about 75 of them, at a price of $125 each, made of ruffles and layers in the old Italian style, designed by Ellen Dillon, a Southeast professor.

The massive time and effort put into constructing the set, making the costumes and putting fight scenes together represent a commitment on Stilson's part to make Southeast Missouri State University's "Romeo and Juliet" an original production, one that doesn't borrow from any previous takes on the Shakespeare classic.

"Every time you approach a classic, you try to take the approach that it's an original script," said Stilson.

With a story that is so familiar to so many people throughout Western culture, Stilson's undertaking is a big challenge. He hopes the audience will see this old story in the same fresh light he does.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182