Berkshire on Stage

How many actresses beyond their teenage years have bemoaned the fact that they will never get to play Juliet, never be cast to recite that gorgeous poetry on a stage? No wonder Candy Buckley celebrates her role as Juliet in Barrington Stage’s U.S. Premiere of A TENDER THING by Ben Power! In Power’s play, Buckley and Derek Smith (Romeo) play mature lovers, who survive their youth to live a long and happy
marriage, interrupted only by Juliet’s terminal illness. Director Alan Paul, returning to his love for the classics, especially in the intimate setting of the St. Germain Theatre, helms one of the saddest, most joyful, most elegant and moving productions to grace a Berkshires stage.

Ben Power, whose body of work includes The Lehman Trilogy and the BBC series The Hollow Crown, has crafted a script using Shakespeare’s words in ROMEO AND JULIET and borrowing from several of the Bard’s sonnets (out of 154 possible choices). But rather than using only Romeo and Juliet’s lines, Power sometimes includes lines originally spoken by other characters in the play and with liberal use of
flashbacks, the lines are not in chronological order. Imagine what a challenge that must have been for the two actors, who had to unlearn entire speeches they may have studied for full-length Shakespeare productions.

The play takes place in a stunningly modern, minimalistic gray room (designed by Marsha Ginsberg) with a long white billowing curtain along the back wall, beyond which is a closed walkway and limitless sea. Music and Sound Designer Fabian Obispo provides the hypnotic sound of the waves. Ginsberg’s built-in doors on opposite sides of the stage offer quick, dramatic entrances and exits, sometimes simultaneously, and the use of cylindrical glass lighting fixtures that can be raised and lowered add new
meaning to the emphasis on light throughout the play, beginning with the first line.

Robert Wierzel’s lighting design adds immeasurably to the effectiveness of the production, from the tunnel-like feeling of brightness beckoning beyond each door, to the spot illuminating a particular actor, to the passing of time measured in the darkness or shimmering of the sea, and the vertical colored lines above the set. Costume Designer Ricky Reynoso’s dazzling costumes (particularly those of Juliet)–each telling its own story–expressing the sadness of the present and the hopeful future of the past.

The collaboration of every artist involved in Alan Paul’s production elucidates the magic of theatre and how it can affect us visually, orally, and psychologically in the course of this poignant study of love and death. Thanks to Obispo’s soaring music and Mayte Natalio’s movement direction, we follow the pleasures of Romeo and Juliet’s courtship, the richness of their marriage through dance and song, and the downward progression of Juliet’s disease, causing her to consider assisted suicide with all its
implications.

The relationship between Buckley’s Juliet and Smith’s Romeo is astonishing. We are told in the program that these actors have each had a long connection to Shakespeare’s plays and have acted opposite one another in six other plays, which certainly helps in a short rehearsal process. Their tenderness, grace, and level of trust with each other on the stage of the St. Germain Stage is palpable. Actors of this
caliber don’t hold anything back in their heartbreaking yet uplifting performance. Much is demanded of them physically: exiting and re-entering quickly in different costumes and carrying props, dancing with abandon as they revel in their moves, dancing through pain, chasing one another across the stage, lifting, falling, all while conserving their breath and stamina for the beautiful verse they speak. Emotionally they experience the process of aging as they jump forward and backward through time– from sexy and playful youth through the devastation of old age, illness and loss, they touch on every stage of human relationships in one hour and 15 minutes.

Shakespeare’s words and the characters’ intentions are always clear: Smith involves us viscerally as his Romeo struggles to persuade Buckley’s Juliet not to give up but to remain with him. They speak the words of Shakespeare’s young lovers but more is at stake when those who have lived together for a lifetime are facing unbearable choices. Smiling through her tears, Buckley tries to reason with her husband as Juliet’s body breaks down, and by then, we are undone. But that should never deter any theatre lover from witnessing this unique and extraordinary production.

A TENDER THING runs from June 25-July 20 at Barrington Stage Company’s St. Germain Stage, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield, MA. For tickets call 413-236-8888 or online at barringtonstageco.org.

Barrington Stage Company presents A TENDER THING by Ben Power. Director: Alan Paul. Cast: Candy Buckley (Juliet), Derek Smith (Romeo). Scenic Design: Marsha Ginsberg; Costume Design: Ricky Reynoso; Lighting Design: Robert Wierzel; Original Music and Sound Design: Fabian Obispo; Movement: Mayte Natalio. Production Stage Manager: Jason Brouillard.

The production runs 75 minutes with no intermission.