As I mentioned in a previous post (7/24/14 The Rubicon Theatre), being in So Cal means there's a wealth of talented performers all over the place, and they pop up in productions everywhere. My daughter has been fascinated with Romeo and Juliet, and after watching Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in
Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, I promised that I would find a live production for us to see.
I saw one listed at the beginning of summer, but we were tied up on all the performance times, and then it sold out. But I knew I'd find another if I kept looking. I found the site
Shakespeare in LA, which I'd check, and looking at it last week, I found a listing for the 1140 Production.
Still, I was a bit wary. I googled the company, and found that this performance of Romeo and Juliet was funded by
Kickstarter. It was also affiliated somehow with USC graduate students. The director posted the Kickstarter notice on June 25, with the first showing scheduled for July 18. It reminded me of those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movies-"I know what we'll do! We'll put on a show!" Still the tickets were only $10, so I bought them, knowing we'd have to drag my son along kicking and screaming. He had read Romeo and Juliet in his freshman English class, and hadn't liked it.
We got dressed for the Saturday, July 26, showing and as we drove down to Eagle Rock, I warned my kids that I wasn't sure what to expect on this trip. I said that I was a bit wary about this production, and so we were going to stop at the
Oinkster, so at least I knew that we'd have a great pastrami sandwich.
A moment to talk about the Oinkster. It has far and away the best pastrami I've had in LA. Tender, salty, not chewy at all, in a great bun, it is excellent and highly recommended if you are anywhere close to Eagle Rock and need a sandwich. Their burgers are good too, and they usually have some pretty interesting beers on tap-I had a
Dogfish Head Festina Peche, a citrusy beer that the counter person warned me about and strongly suggested I taste it first. The Festina Peche, apparently, is an acquired taste. There's always a line, but it moves surprisingly fast. The Belgian french fries are very good as well, crunchy but not greasy, and served with a garlic aioli sauce, which I really like. It is one of the few places where the fries are still good even after they get cold. Go with the Oinkster, which is made with cabbage, caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese.
The theater,
Live Arts LA, is a space, used for all manner of arts, and it was just a few minutes from the Oinkster. We arrived and were greeted by a young woman wearing the same Hawaiian shirt that I had bought from the ABC Store in Kona on my last trip there, which I mentioned to her. We crowded into a tiny reception room, and as more people arrived, I began to wonder why we were being kept in this small space.
While being crowded, I read the Director's Note in the program.
Director Shaya Mulcahy admitted that she'd taken liberties with the play, and bravely added that "it was all for the best." I immediately thought that the director has changed one of the most famous plays by possibly the greatest writer in the English language, and was saying essentially her version would be better. Pretty brave, and either a recipe for disaster or a pretty good play. She also noted that she'd condensed the play so much that she'd even removed the "and."
When we were finally allowed in to the performance space, about the size of a small basketball court, with two rows of chairs running lengthwise on either side, I understood why we were held outside. As we walked in, all 9 actors were standing in the center of the floor, frozen, and waiting to be brought to life. On the internet, I'd read that all parental figures were eliminated, and I immediately noticed that all these actors were quite young (20 somethings in my 50 something perspective) and generally small in stature. The actors portraying Romeo and Juliet were standing in the middle, locked in an embrace with Juliet bearing a dagger.
They stood that way for a good ten minutes, until Mercutio came to life and performed the prologue, weaving among the standing actors and starting the play. The play whipped along at a pretty good clip, which I liked. Without the adult figures you lose the 'us against our parents' aspect, which makes the play popular in high school English classes. It felt vaguely like those 80's John Hughes movies where the parents are largely absent from the film, making it more like the teenagers are the center of the universe. Still, with quick pacing and solid acting, the play was entertaining to watch.
Like at the beginning, the play ended with actors left on stage-Romeo and Juliet lying prostrate on the floor, and we had to step around them to leave. No actors came out for bows after, adding to the tragic nature of the show-four of the nine actors were playing characters that died (unlike the original play, Paris does not die), and we didn't get to see them come back to life for their curtain calls. It left a vague feeling inside, and my kids and I were the last to leave the theater. The young lady in the Hawaiian shirt assured us that it wasn't method acting and that the two dead actors would awaken when we stepped out of the auditorium.
Out on the sidewalk outside the performance space, the 50 or so people in the audience gathered to congratulate the actors. Most seemed to know, at least peripherally, the performers, and though I wanted to compliment the actors and the director, if I could figure out who that was, the actors were having such lively conversations that my inherit shyness kicked in. My kids have some of that, too, so we stood on the outside of the groups, like the new kids on the playground, until we finally decided to go.
I very much enjoyed the show and my daughter and I seem to have a knack for getting front row seats on short notice (like at the
Rubicon-see 7/24/14). My daughter did as well, and though my son bitched and moaned before and after, I think he was okay with it.
It was still hot at 10 pm, so we decided to make one more stop before leaving Eagle Rock. We had passed a place called the
Snow Station, a shaved ice joint that looked okay. I didn't think much of the decor, but the counter person was very enthusiastic, going through how their 'snow' was better than shaved ice, in that they freeze their juices and then shave that. We were going to order three Mini-Bears, but then saw the Hungry Bear, which seemed to be a much better value. We had the watermelon and salted caramel, topped with Oreo cookies and mochi with white chocolate syrup and honey. It was excellent-it did have the texture of snow and was very light on the tongue.
Then, back to Ventura.
Rick's note: the 1140 productions logo and cast shot for romeo/juliet are from facebook.
