Rennie Harris’ ‘Rome and Jewels’: Protecting hallowed works important

Kathleen Pletcher, the Government Inventive Director of FirstWorks RI, launched the work about to take the stage – Rennie Harris’ Rome and Jewels (2000). She defined the way it’s an adaptation of true classics: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and its extra trendy iteration West Aspect Story. The work’s themes and truths stay extremely related and impactful, she affirmed. 

Underscoring that influence on the right here and now, she additionally famous how the performers had spent the day earlier than in native faculties — educating the following technology on some fundamentals of kind and course of, people who helped deliver the approaching work to life. The viewers, clapping rapturously, appeared to know the significance of that influence. 

Some may declare that the classics should be preserved as one thing sacred. Others may advocate for the form of iterating and updating that retains them talking clearly into the fashionable day. Rome and Jewels demonstrates what the latter perspective can nurture: a piece that dares to make use of the daring stylings of sudden inventive genres, to talk timeless truths in languages that trendy audiences already communicate. 

The very first thing we within the viewers noticed was a metropolis skyline (unique visible design by Howard Goldcranz, visible design by Ryder Palmere), skyscrapers’ sharp angles juxtaposing the smooth gradients of a watercolor sundown. We quickly met some intriguing characters, their zippy quips starting to construct character, narrative, and a way of the narrative’s stakes. There can definitely be some colourful characters within the “hood,” these quips necessary for conserving “cred” and expressing “beef.” These artists appear to deeply know the world of the road, and so they invited us into it with this work. 

Talking of that dialogue, the multi-modal nature of this work struck me fairly early on; dialogue, motion and music all got here collectively to construct the world through which this story grew and lived. In that I felt a kinship with hip hop itself – with its separate, and equally elementary, parts (dance, rap/emceeing, deejaying and graffiti). Evocative reds and shadows throughout the stage (unique lighting design by Pamela Hobson, lighting design by Julie Ballard and Elyjah Kleinsmith), and separate colour palettes for warring “crews” (“avenue” equivalents of the Montagues and Capulets) visually scaffolded that world. 

Rhythmic and breathy speech, for its half, engaged me simply as thoughtfully-crafted hip hop can. I additionally chuckled a bit, extremely entertained, to listen to Shakespeare soliloquies – proper from the pages of Romeo and Juliet – spoken on this hip hop idiom. Fairly than cheapen these hallowed phrases, it introduced me into them in a recent, vibrant method. Dialogue ping-ponged backwards and forwards between trendy and classical speech. That blend was one way or the other cohesive and pleasing slightly than discordant.  

Music, from (after all) hip hop to traditional rock to extra trendy rock, felt simply as vibrantly eclectic (sound design and musical route from Darrin Ross). Motion mirrored the extensive stylistic spectrum of “hip hop dance” — sluggish, steady to accented and lightning-quick; strikingly sturdy and athletic to spotlighting the sublest nuances of gesture and articulation; constructed by the group of the cypher (a circle of dancers) or the kinetic spirit of only one mover. 

The performers may floor deep in gymnastic breakdancing feats simply as easily as they might transfer via extra lifted pop/lock vocabulary. They excelled in any respect components of that motion spectrum. That excellence didn’t need to generate one thing overly esoteric, scholarly or abstruse to the purpose of being inaccessible. A spirit of playful and spontaneous creativity pervaded all of it — once more, that which imbues bigger hip hop tradition. 

I additionally seen, pretty early on within the work, how Harris selected to not bodily characterize “Jewels”: Juliet in Shakespeare’s story and Maria in its 1950’s rendition. Fairly, she was an off-stage presence. I contemplated Harris’ intentions behind that alternative (certainly, such apparent selections have intention behind them, for each artist); maybe, in Harris’ imaginative and prescient, Jewels is extra of a really perfect of candy, smooth love, full of heat and sweetness. 

In a while within the work, a projection of a rose crammed the backdrop, opening after which closing its curvaceous petals. This picture was maybe a visible illustration of that pressure of affection, that concept of softness and nurturance, on this world of the road. In such methods Harris infused a postmodern sensibility — of thriller, summary illustration and interpretation within the eye of the beholder. 

On the identical time, the work remained grounded in one thing very actual, of the inventive pressure of the second over something present in a textbook. Furthermore, the artists introduced the viewers proper into that inventive second. The smoke of dry ice ensured that each one of our senses had been engaged within the uncooked feeling of the story at hand. DJs, manipulating information not solely with their fingers however in a single part with their enamel (simply wow!), referred to as us to clap and holler alongside. We had no alternative however to be proper there within the rhythm with them.   

Sadly, such inventive pressure couldn’t stem tragedy born of violence. The killing of Rome’s shut buddy Merc (mirroring Shakespeare’s Mercutio) set off a sequence of occasions resulting in the deaths of each Rome and Jewels. Harris’ narrative trimmed away most of the plot factors of Shakespeare’s traditional to successfully get to the center of the story. One may level to the closing phrases of a clever, older character for that narrative coronary heart: violence solely breeds extra violence, and in that setting none of us are untouched. 

With present world conflicts being what they’re, rooted in a lot older tribal animosity, I believed again to Pletcher’s opening phrases – how well timed this timeless story stays. It turns into solely the extra so by the braveness and intentional creativity of artists like Rennie Harris and his collaborators, resulting in the delicate ferocity of their Rome and Jewels. 

They will set an instance for different creatives maybe compelled by the classics, however cautious of eradicating a protecting mud cowl and throwing the “guidelines” to the wind. These tales don’t need to be so valuable. As a substitute, if retellings are made with loving intentionality and consciousness of the world because it at present is, they’ve so, a lot extra to offer. 

By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.