Shakespeare unplugged

The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary of summer theater in Land Park by presenting two of the Bard’s most popular plays: Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It.

The festival is going old school—like way back Elizabethan-era old school—with its production of the classic tale of two star-crossed lovers by presenting Romeo and Juliet the way theater was presented in Shakespeare’s day: with an all-male cast. Not only are all roles played by men (since women were banned from the stage in the 16th century,) but there are also bare-bones sets and live minstrels, which is also reminiscent of the simpler staging of yore.

To give the women in the summer troupe their fair share of stage time, As You Like It is being presented with an all-lady cast.

At first the all-male cast was apparent, not only because it’s unusual these days, but also because in the first couple of acts on opening weekend, the cast took some time to warm into their rhythms and roles. Chalk it up to the cast having no preview performances, dealing with a holiday weekend and a 6 p.m. start time on Sunday. However, the large cast gelled with strong performances by the end of the first half, and by the finale presented the audience with a strong, emotionally resonant tale of lovers paying the price for family feuds.

Sean Thomas Olivares presents the more traditional brash Romeo who is smitten with a young and impressionable Juliet, played by Zack Scovel. Scovel begins his portrayal of the young lass as a flighty teasing teen, but ends by fleshing out his performance with a heartbreaking soliloquy. Other notable performances were Tom Block as Tybalt, Ryan Canfield as Mercutio, Vernon Lewis as Frair Lawrence, Andrew Zelny as Paris, Anthony Person as the Prince and Bill Gilbert as the Nurse.

By stripping the stage bare and rising to the challenge of an all-male cast, director Christine Nicholson allows us to enjoy this classic in the classic sense—which highlights Shakespeare’s language and story of brawling broods and hormonally infused teen lovers.