STAGE REVIEW : Loving on Borrowed Time : UC Irvine Production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Qualifies as a Screwball Tragedy

Just so there’s no confusion, director Robert Cohen explains where he’s coming from in the program notes for UC Irvine’s “Romeo and Juliet.”& J,” as he casually calls Shakespeare’s most famous play, is more than just a somber tale of idealized love--it’s close to being a wisecracking burlesque.

“ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a brawling, sprawling Shakespearean phantasm: a woeful tragedy cross-laced with comic pratfalls and dirty jokes,” Cohen writes. “ ‘R & J’ exists in its over-the-top contradictions: intellectual sensuality, carnal humor, rapier wit, poetic sword fights. . . . This is Shakespeare’s bounciest and most exuberant tragedy.”

From there, Cohen takes us on a giddy ride. The Three Stooges meet Romeo and Juliet? OK, Cohen doesn’t reach that far, although his response to a few characters (most notably the servant Peter, played boisterously by Kelly Perine) includes a little nyuk-nyuk-nyuk slapstick. This staging has to qualify as screwball tragedy.

Cohen is intent on action, a clear rejection of the torturous romanticism that he believes afflicts too many productions. To get the most bang, he moves everything to the 19th Century--a time, Cohen points out, when passions were high and dueling was common.

The most obvious result of this time shift are Sandra Sykora’s costumes. She’s replaced the typically billowing Italian styles with a more simple suited look that, above all, welcomes movement. That’s good, because this staging has a lot going on--there’s nothing static about it.

The result is entertaining and fresh, especially in Act I, when Cohen sets up the story and presents the protagonists as impulsive adolescents eager for sex, ready to make huge mistakes for the sake of their hormones. The laughing asides and sight gags then seem nicely weighed against the lovers’ youthful spontaneity and inexperience.

Everything gets iffy in Act II, though, when Romeo and Juliet take on the bigger dimension of tragic drama. Appropriately, Cohen shifts the tone to something more serious, but we don’t follow easily; his Romeo and Juliet are so callow, it’s natural to see their fate as merely the result of an impulsive mistake, not a near-spiritual connection.

Brian D. Evans’ Romeo and Rebecca Clark’s Juliet reflect this. Clark is super early on, revealing a delight at this first true adventure in Juliet’s young life. She’s clearly in it for the fun, part rebellion against her parents and part realization that it’s about time to learn about adult things like love and, especially, love-making.

But later on, when we have to feel the fullness of her love, Clark’s conviction doesn’t resonate. Her Juliet still seems to be playing at romance, and that leaves a hollow ending.

The same can be said for Evans. He’s also just fine--a juiced-up lad eager for an adult escapade--until we have to be persuaded that Romeo’s fickle lust has been elevated into an absolute of faithfulness and love.

‘Romeo and Juliet’

A UC Irvine production of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Directed by Robert Cohen. With Peter Massey, Phil Tabor, Kelly Perine, Allen Moon, Matthew Kohnen, Stephen Simon, Henry Matin Leyva, Gregory K. Krosnes, Buck Stevens, Christine McGraw, Alan Schack, Ann Shipley, Bryant K. Rolle, Brian D. Evans, William C. Meadows, Phil Thompson, Lynn Watson, Rebecca Clark, Mikael Salazar, Maryann Burke, Bob Hartman, Mark J. Zufelt, Rob Addison, Debbie Cheng, Melanie Abrams, Harmony Goodman, Pia Williams and Tanya Turan. Sets by Larry Sousa. Costumes by Sandra Sykora. Lighting by Eric Hanson. Sound by Todd Allen Meier. Plays Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. at the campus’s Fine Arts Village Theatre. $6 to $14. (714) 856-6616 or (714) 856-5000.