Wherefore art thou Romeo?

So I went to Shakespeare in the Park's production of Romeo and Juliet last night, and I didn't like it very much. The lovers had no chemistry (a fatal flaw!), poor acting made many of the characters tiresome (particularly the ranting Mercutio, played by a woman), and the direction was so incoherent that the whole thing felt like a ramshackle contraption of mechanical contrivances. Since I was bored, I started to wonder about the source of the tragedy in the play. One traditional way to think about tragedy is to look for Aristotelian hamartia -- the protagonist's tragic flaw -- e.g., Hamlet's indecisiveness, Othello's jealousy, Macbeth's ambition. But what is Romeo's flaw? What is Juliet's? Immaturity? Rashness? An excess of passion? It's actually hard to pin down, especially when it comes to Juliet. Is she just a victim of Romeo's lack of self-control? In reality, they both seem to be victims of fate and the vengeful flaws of their society. (Lady Capulet was played as a real villain in this version, screaming for Romeo's blood.) In the end, the Prince blames the parents for the deaths of their children, but of course the deaths are also the result of blind bad luck. Is that a flaw in the play? In a poor production, with people running past each other failing to deliver messages in plain sight, it begins to seem so. In a good one, we curse the stars along with Romeo.

QOTD (possibly past)

INCEPTION

La Vie En Reve

-- Marquee at the Neptune

(I didn't notice whether it's still up today, but I was reminded of it by C Jerry Kutner's appreciation of Marion Cotillard.)