There are a million ways that Romeo & Juliet has been performed, but there is something so uniquely sweet and endearing about the New Place Players’ cabaret adaptation of the classic love story, titled The Masque of Night, that sets it apart from the rest. With an earnest cast, pitch-perfect musical accompaniment, and distinctive setting, this one-hour production of Romeo & Juliet is a delicious bite-sized confection of romance and tragedy.
The defining characteristic of this production has to be the atmosphere. Set in the intriguing and inviting Casa Clara, entering the venue is like walking into someone’s living room – but also a small sculpture museum. The space actually functions as both, but for The Masque of Night, spectators are seated on chairs and couches on the walls of the railroad-style space. With Persian carpets, low lighting, and a wine glass in hand, it’s easy to miss the two actors seated on stairs leading to a loft that will soon become part of the stage. Libby Lindsey as Juliet and Maximilian Macdonald as Romeo seem to be in character already. They watch people file in, bubbling with a youthful exuberance that will only magnify as the performance begins.
The script of Romeo and Juliet has been pared down dramatically, leaving only the scenes that take place between the two lovers – or each one soliloquizing about the other. Occasionally one of the musicians provides a necessary line (i.e. harpist Anna Bikales as the off-stage Nurse calling Juliet to come back inside from her balcony love scene), but this production is all about the couple. Gone are the complications of Paris, Mercutio, Tybalt, the Montagues and the Capulets, the societal expectations of adults. All that’s left are the tender words exchanged between Romeo and Juliet. And we get to watch without interruption as their love blazes brightly and then is just as quickly extinguished, like a fragment of paper catching on fire.
The actors lean fully, sublimely, into the adolescent throes of infatuation. Macdonald as Romeo lights up with a huge grin from the moment he spies Juliet, bowing his head coyly when he speaks to her. He paces around the room, making sure everyone in the audience knows of the virtues of his Juliet with a lovesick desperation. Lindsey as Juliet, for her part, is more reserved at first, but wide-eyed and giggly as the pair make plans to elope. “Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face, / Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek / For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight,” she calls down giddily.
The three musicians, occasionally accompanied by Romeo on guitar, set the tone. With an eclectic and bohemian repertoire, from Caetano Veloso to David Bowie to Rufus Wainwright’s composition of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the music accentuates the sentimentality and fantasy of the young love story they’ve chosen to tell. The never-ending patter of rain on Casa Clara’s skylights provides a constant ambient background and a sense of shelter on this particularly stormy Manhattan weekend. All of us are sheltered from the outside weather just as we are sheltered, until the very end, from the complications of the star-crossed love affair in this lovely, heady version of Romeo and Juliet.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Romeo and Juliet without the tragic ending. Their deaths happen as quickly as their wedding day. With no parents or stuffy politicians to monologize over their bodies, no sense of sacrifice for the sake of a greater good, Romeo and Juliet simply pass away. It is us in the audience who are left to ruminate on what their love means to us as The Masque of Night ends. After this stirring and gorgeous production, one can only hope that the New Place Players return to Casa Clara soon.
Based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Directors: Craig Bacon & Janina Picard
Musical Director: Flavio Gaete
Featuring: Libby Lindsey, Maximilian Macdonald, Anna Bikales, Flavio Gaete, Kenji Golden
Run time: one hour
Runs through 10 March