HSC casts a silver lining on the tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet"

By setting the Hartford Stage production of Romeo and Juliet in no more specific a time frame than taking place “over a little more than four days, beginning on Sunday morning, and ending early dawn on Thursday,” director Melia Bensussen reinforces the timelessness of Shakespeare’s classic love story. More importantly, by accenting the ill-fated plot with a Latin American Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) motif, she adds a glimmer of hope to the tragic tale.

For those, like my septuagenarian companion who needed a reminder – the play tells the story of the young couple who fall in love at first sight, an ill-fated love as is foretold in the opening sonnet of the tragedy. Bensussen’s vision of the encounter beautifully unfolds under a magically star-lit ceiling. Below the sparkle, gaily dressed guests, some sporting traditional Day of the Dead masks, dance until – as in the 1996 movie many elders at the Sunday matinee viewed in their late teens – time stands still when the spellbound couple’s eyes lock into each others’ gaze. This initiation of their adolescent yet deep infatuation hastens them to marry and, as one scene leads to another, make additional impetuous decisions and risk their lives because their families, the Capulets and Montagues, are enemies.

The family feud manifests when later, on the street, Tybalt (Juliet’s Capulet cousin) and his pals start a street fight with Romeo and his Montague pals. Swords thrust and slash magnificently onstage throughout the play, this time resulting in Tybalt killing Romeo’s BFF – Mercutio. Romeo retaliates by mortally wounding his new bride’s cousin.

As a side note, Mercutio is played by and as a female. The gender switch of Romeo’s ill-fated sidekick likewise strengthens the meaningful time warp of the Hartford Stage production, leaving no doubt when she utters her last words, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave woman.”

Still, as tomb-doomed as Mercutio and five other major characters of this tragedy remain, Bensussen’s incorporation of Day of the Dead elements suggest the belief that the spirits of deceased loved ones can return to visit the families on the holiday’s celebration of mortality, converting the sorrow of loss to a commemoration that anticipates reuniting with those who have passed. How other than hopeful could one interpret the death-masked deceased who return to the outskirts of the HSC main stage as, after the tragic loss of a son and a daughter, the feuding fathers extend their hands to shake on a "glooming peace” in the days that follow?

My septuagenarian companion, who had never seen (nor recalls reading) Romeo and Juliet, admitted to feeling goosebumps at the end of Act V, goosebumps that lasted well into the ride home from the performance. I still remain struck by the comforting imagery. The Hartford Stage production, which plays through May 18, is sure to enthrall an audience both familiar and unfamiliar with the works of William Shakespeare. From the moment the large cast steps out on the proscenium, lighting, costuming, and choreography, along with each and every performance, transports the audience to an anytime, anyplace story where love, though sacrificed, breaks ground for a more enlightened next generation.

"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, directed by Melia Bensussen, runs through May 18 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are on Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. plus a Tuesday performance on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday performances on April 30 at 7:30 p.m. and May 7 at 2 p.m. There is no performance on May 15. $20-$105. hartfordstage.org.