ARTS
A simple love story
Bann Parry
Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Royal, Glasgow) British ballet-goers can now see no less than three different productions of Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev's score: MacMillan's for the Royal Ballet, Nureyev's for Festival and, the most recent acquisition, John Cranko's for the Scottish Ballet. Cranko's was, in fact, the earliest of the three. He mounted it first in 1958 for La Scala and revised it in 1962 for his own Stuttgart company. His former assistant, Georgette Tsinguirides, has recreated it for the Scottish Ballet, a company with its own tradition of performing strongly dramatic works. Cranko drew on two earlier versions of the ballet, neither of which is well-known here: Ashton's for the Danish Ballet and Lavrovsky's for the Kirov. Cranko took some of the best elements from both — and MacMillan drew from him in turn in creating what is probably the most familiar version of the ballet in this country. Now, at last, it is possible to see in current British repertoires how much MacMillan owes to Cranko.
How much they both owe to Shakespeare is another matter. Operatic versions of the Plays can at least use some of the words. Choreographers have to invent an entirely new language to replace his poetry. Not Tally are rash enough to try, and those who do choose the best-known plays: that way, they can avoid explaining the intricacies of the plot, which ballet cannot do. Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet — or thinks they do. Its themes are balletic enough; feuds, love, sex and death. Such subtleties as sub-plots and social relation- sittPs, however, go by the board. For exam- ple, Mercutio, as a close friend of Romeo and Benvolio, is assumed to be a Mon- tague. He gatecrashes the Capulet ball 'Ong with his mates. Yet Shakespeare makes it clear that Mercutio has an invita- tion to the party — and, since Montagues ,4_re explicitly excluded from the guest list, cannot be of that House. Such a nice distinction would ruin the pre-party pas de trots for the lads (a device used by Cranko, MacMillan and Nureyev) so it is ignored. A further example: balletic mime cannot im- part the information that there is going to be a letter to the exiled Romeo from Friar Lawrence explaining all, but since he didn't get it, he doesn't know that Juliet isn't dead. Too many negatives for dumb-show, so a vital element of the plot is left out. Nureyev is the only one who tries to spell it out in his ballet — the most literary of them Cranko decided early on to abandon his copy of the text and tell the story in his own
terms. The ballet opens with Romeo alone on stage, an ardent lover about to court the complaisant Rosaline at the break of day. The sun soon lights up the set, an elegant perspective of Renaissance Verona. Jurgen Rose's design (based on his original for Stuttgart) provides two levels, with an up- per section that can serve as bridge, balcony and burial vault, through which Juliet's seemingly lifeless body is lowered in the last act. The action proper starts with the early morning market crowd busily selling each other vegetables, chickens, song-birds and fruit. The last of these commodities come in handy as projectiles once trouble breaks out, which it soon does.
The provocation is undoubtedly caused by the Capulets, who are an altogether nastier lot than the Montagues and far less ready to make it up when the Duke of Verona puts a stop to the fighting. Romeo has by now been established as one of the gang, as ready to join in a combative dance or a street-fight as anyone else. The balletic swordplay turns out to be of a pretty low order, with rapiers clashing rhythmically in time to the music (an implausible device copied by MacMillan). The battle ends with a score of one-all dead — and that is the last we see of the feud that splits the town and causes the tragedy. Cranko narrows his focus to concentrate on the lovers and their fate, which, far from being star-crossed, could be caused simply be parental opposi- tion. There is no culminating scene of public reconciliation between the Mon- tagues and Capulets. The curtain comes down on the corpses of the lovers, alone in the Capulet vault (except for the body of Paris, killed by Romeo for being in the way).
The Scottish Ballet company does full justice to Cranko's animated crowd scenes, including an enthusiastic carnival in Act II with precision-wheeling by successive lines of merrymakers (much more fun than Mac- Millan's scenes, dominated by three over- worked whores). However, Cranko does not seem to have given himself enough time to develop individual roles in dance terms: the Capulet parents, the Nurse, Paris and Tybalt have to flesh out their parts through their acting, which is not quite strong enough in this production. Mercutio, though, as always, has the best steps and the best death. Vincent Hantam in the part makes the most of his chances, with a vir- tuoso vocabulary that includes a spec- tacular spin with a cocked elbow resting jauntily on the knee of his outstretched leg. He and Christopher Gillard as Benvolio unleash a succession of triple tours en l'air that cause them no trouble at all. Both Romeos that I saw, Davide Bombana and
Jonathan Kelly, resorted to cheating when they joined in — but perhaps they had to save themselves for the pas de deux with Juliet.
The two Juliets I saw were excellent in their very different ways. Titian-haired Elaine McDonald was passionate and poig- nant, sensing, from her dawning realisation in her first scene that it was time to grow up, what the likely consequences would be in 15th-century Verona. Her Romeo, Davide Bombana (from La Scala Ballet), was too immature for such awareness and too unformed a dancer to be a foil to her. Paris (Christopher Long) might have been a better choice after all. He was very gentle with her during the rejection scene in Act III: trapped by her parents, nurse and un- wanted suitor, Juliet huddled on the floor like a wounded animal, refusing to allow Paris to raise her head and comfort her.
Another Paris, Robert Hampton, was much harsher with Noriko Ohara as Juliet. A tiny dancer, with a vulnerable, childlike face, she was rather oddly matched with the tall and manly Jonathan Kelly as Romeo. Kelly's considerable strength as a partner did mean that Ohara was able to soar more ecstatically than McDonald in the lifts that are the core of a Cranko pas de deux.
It is here, however, that Cranko's lyrical invention fails him. He cannot match Shakespeare's sonnets for the lovers in the balcony scene, nor Romeo's blank verse as he dies. Amazingly, MacMillan can (well, almost). It is the one area where he has Cranko beat. For all that, the Scottish com- pany has acquired a fine Shakespeare ballet that will do them proud, both on their own territory and on tour.
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