by Geoff Hoff~

The United International Peoples Experimental Circus (UIPEC) production of Romeo and Juliet, now playing at the smallest theatre at the Stella Adler, is a lusty, vivacious, decadent, wholly theatrical experience.  The press release calls it a re-imagining.  It’s not a re-imagining - West Side Story is a re-imagining.  In this production, once you realize that it is a Gypsy burlesque circus performing the Bard’s romantic tragedy complete with acrobats, jugglers, dancers, violin music and one large, very hairy and bearded woman, the story and its impact are left, for the most part, completely intact.

The stage is plunged into total darkness and loud Gypsy music plays.  The lights come back on and the stage is magically filled with more people, it seems, than are in the audience.  One of them flips over backwards, then runs up the wall and the circus has begun.  The Ringmaster delivers the prologue, then, after the Gypsies sort themselves out into their respective corners of the simple stage, the convoluted comic conversation between Sampson and Gregory begins in a public place in Verona.

There are two levels in which this play is played.  One is a circus filled with bawdy, drunken performers who drink from bottles of Irish whiskey and English gin, and one is the Bard’s work.  Each actor plays a circus member who plays a character in the play, so Anne Wilson is Olya Courdini who plays Juliet.  (Very well, by the way.)  The changes of scene are accomplished with ribald dances performed in semi-darkness, ending with one of the circus women holding up a sign announcing the next location.

The cast is multi-ethnic and there are many accents mingling on the stage.  Even being presented with so many performers, several playing more than one part in R&J, each is very distinct.  Peter La Bas as Jean-Louis Courdini, the Ringmaster plays The Prince with more than enough royal expectation of obedience.  Maurizio DeMeo is Leonardo Da Vincio who plays Tybalt with the youthful arrogance and swagger of someone who has never wanted for anything. Wissam Saliba is Shelik who plays Lord Capulet as an abusive husband and father with enough conviction that I wonder why it has never been done that way before.

Ms. Wilson as Ms. Courdini as Juliet is marvelous.  She brings a sexy innocence to the role and a sexual lustiness to the moments between the scenes.  She is almost uncomfortably real in those moments when her body imagines what it would be like to be with Romeo.

Rose Swaitecka is Tsura Lyubitska who plays Lady Capulet with sexy drunkenness.  She is completely frightened of her husband and fears her daughter’s actions will bring domestic violence down upon both of them.  David Pesta is Baron Saturday who plays Lord Montague Paris.  Any time his name is mentioned, he appears on the side of the stage in full statuesque pose, the great man.

Ramin Soharb is Ramino Sohrabi who plays Abram and Peter, both with wonderful comic chops.  He is also the resident acrobat and performs amazing back-flips, twists, break-dancing and other feats of graceful athleticism during the scene changes.  He has a presence that is hard to turn away from, and the director was wise to have him sit with his face to the wall when he isn’t in a scene.

Yvette Green is Luxxie who plays the Chief Watchman.  She is dressed in a bangled skirt and taunts and flirts and dances Fose-like dances when she isn’t in the moment in the play.  Raul Vasquez is Alexandre Romanimov who plays Marcutio.  He is lithe, decadent, almost evokes the essence of Tim Curry’s Frankenferter.  Whit Giddens is Rosa Nastasie who plays the nurse.  He is large, hairy and has a scruffy beard, but is very much the scattered woman who has raised Juliet from birth.

The one performer who isn’t as up to snuff as the rest is Deshik Vansadia who is Renato Guttuso who plays Romeo.  He is too slight, his accent is almost impenetrable and he doesn’t have the whimsy required for the early scenes nor the gravitas required for the later ones.

The cast is rounded out by Justin Hango is Mr .Xlolani JO-NO-NO, who plays Benvolio, Marine Buton as Ludivine the violinist, Joe D Agosta as Guido who plays Friar Lawrence, Mariana Vilchez as Magnolia who is the 2nd Watchman and a puppet who plays Lady Montague.  Even the ladies taking tickets wore Gypsy dresses and held bottles of Irish whiskey.

The UIPEC work so well together, I imagine them to have been together on the road for many years, but suspect they were put together solely for this production.  There is no history for them listed in the program or press release.  I would very much like to see them attack other work, although I doubt, to use a horrible cliche, that lightning could strike twice.

Romeo and Juliet was directed by Alex Aves.  Lighting design by Paige Selene Luke.  Once again, costumes are not credited, although they were wonderful.  The set design is also not credited.

Romeo and Juliet is performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm through May 2nd, 2010.

The Stella Adler Theatre is located at 6773 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, just east of Highland.

Ticket prices: $15.00 general admission, $10.00 for students and seniors, $5.00 for high school students.

Reservations online at www.Plays411.com/romeoandjuliet or by phone at (323) 465-4446.