Starring: Elena Lobsanova, Guillaume Côté
Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky
Music: Sergei Prokofiev
Venue: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Run Information: Romeo and Juliet concluded its run on March 13, 2020.
Rating: ★★★½
Alexei Ratmansky’s lively interpretation lacks romance, but is chock-full of talent.
At first, I thought that I was watching a performance of Lord Montague and Lady Capulet. As the pair of lovebird teenagers, Guillaume Côté’s Romeo and Elena Lobsanova’s Juliet look very – let’s say – mature. But that thought quickly dissipates as the duo waltz across the stage in their first pas de deux. Their movements are grounded with a grace, youthfulness, and a fervent helplessness that only dancers with a certain maturity and experience could possess.
Côté and Lobsanova played these two iconic roles in Alexei Ratmansky’s production when it first premiered at The National Ballet of Canada in 2011, and it’s a treat for audiences to see them rediscover these roles once again – nine years later.
As the passionate male lover, Côté has a wonderful stage presence; his final solo, composed of frantic jumps and turns as he believes his beloved is dead, pierces through the entire theatre. Paired with Lobsanova’s nimble, light, and playful Juliet, the two dancers complement each other perfectly.
It’s a pity, then, that Ratmansky’s choreography holds back on the romance. In the scene of the ball, there is a beautiful sequence where the paramours are lifted off the ground, a stunning metaphor for how their love transcends the restrictive community they each are bound to. But this breathless lift is held for merely a fleeting moment. Other moments of romance between the couple are few and far between.
Instead, Côté and Lobsanova are given complicated step sequences – which are executed with precision – and isolated solos that lack connection. What is missing are moments of levity. That’s not to say, however, that Ratmansky’s staging fails on all levels. These lively step sequences, which harken to a style of folk dancing, features heavily in the ensemble sections. At times, there are a lot of bodies moving around the stage at once; some dancers are creating large circular patterns, while others are engaged in sword fights. But Ratmansky manages the traffic well and the result is a feast for the eyes.
Richard Hudson’s perspectivist sets and costumes of muted colours are a feast for the eyes, too, and allude to the off-kilter setting of Verona. This is matched with Jennifer Tipton’s lighting design, which up until the final scene, relies heavily on spotlights to draw the focus to each dancer. The final stage picture, created mostly by Tipton, is haunting: the walls of Verona turn blood red as an overhead spotlight acknowledges the fate of the two lovers.
Though the vision is there, the execution does not always work. A problem with the fly system and a fallen prop during a terrible moment, along with a few awkward tempo changes and an out of tune tuba solo in the orchestra (conducted by David Briskin) on opening night, added to the feeling that this remount production is lacking in attention to detail with regards to its technical and orchestral elements.
The main draw, however, is the dancers. And in that regard, this ensemble is firing on all cylinders. Accompanying Côté and Lobsanova are Piotr Stanczyk, Jack Bertinshaw, and Skylar Campbell as Tybalt, Mercutio, and Benvolio, respectively. As Juliet's cousin, Stanczyk is sly and aggressive, akin to that of a gang leader. His swordwork is mesmerizing, as he smoothly creates extended lines with his arms and torso.
Bertinshaw and Campbell have wonderful comedic timing as Romeo’s best friends. In every scene they are in, it seems their energy and testosterone levels are off the charts – so much so that Bertinshaw’s extended (really, really extended) death scene treads into the territory of farce (I mean, how much testosterone does someone need to have in order to continue prancing about for five minutes after being stabbed?).
Peter Ottman and Lorna Geddes round out the main cast as Friar Lawrence and the hilarious Nurse, respectively.
It’s a pity that this production was cancelled early in its run due to the COVID-19 pandemic – although it was responsible for The National Ballet of Canada to take that measure – and that audiences will not get to see Côté and Lobsanovic in what is perhaps their last time stepping into these roles. But Romeo and Juliet is a cultural staple and like the spirit of the city, it will return, no doubt.