Shakespeare's R&J

Through Aug. 24, $20, Mauckingbird Theatre Co., Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-923-8909, mauckingbirdtheatreco.org.

by Mark Cofta

THEATER

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Though all theater is the art of translation, Shakespeare's R&J adds another layer. Schoolboys wearing matching blazers suffer Latin, math and rigid morals by rote, then escape to their secret pleasure — Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which they exuberantly playact (the way teens today might impersonate Batman's characters), discovering not only a thrilling story, but aspects of themselves they were unable (or unwilling) to see.

Joe Calarco's 1997 adaptation, which I saw Saturday night, was directed with exquisite detail by Mauckingbird Theatre Co.'s artistic director, Peter Reynolds. Largely an inventive four-actor cutting of Shakespeare's script, R&J tells its own story of overpowering first love. Evan Jonigkeit plays a believably earnest Romeo; Newton Buchanon is a charming Mercutio and mischievous Friar; and Nicholas Park makes a hilarious yet sincere Nurse and touchingly human Tybalt. But Conrad Ricamora's transcendent Juliet reveals an insightful vulnerability and desperation that joins two tales of forbidden love.

Shakespeare's R&J succeeds brilliantly as an earthy, economical version of the well-known tragedy — staged with only a trunk, two boxes and a red sash that becomes swords (intense tug-of-wars staged by John Bellomo), the Friar's vestments, the Nurse's shawl, poison, even a ring — then seamlessly layers another story, entirely without dialogue, gloriously achieving what all great theater should: It makes the new familiar, and the familiar, new.

Through Aug. 24, $20, Mauckingbird Theatre Co., Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-923-8909, mauckingbirdtheatreco.org.