A TENDER THING by Ben Power (Soulpepper). At the Young Centre (50 Tank House). Runs to October 1. See soulpepper.ca for schedule. $29-$74, rush $5-$23. 416-866-8666. See listing. Rating: NNN
In A Tender Thing, Ben Power imagines what might have happened if Romeo and Juliet had lived beyond their teens and had to deal with old age and imminent death.
This riff on Shakespeare’s well-known love story uses the original text, though in a frequently original manner, as well as other works by the Bard, including his sonnets.
The result is sometimes clever if ultimately slight. The success of the production, warmly directed by Michael Shamata, is mostly due to the two actors, real-life husband and wife Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk.
We meet the characters in their bedroom Juliet’s sleep is troubled and Romeo tries to calm her down. It’s clear from the start that they’re still deeply in love as they recite lines, both those we remember as their own and those originally spoken by other characters.
Juliet voices the Nurse’s memories of her dead daughter, giving her cause for grief since the lines are now about Juliet’s own child she later recites Mercutio’s fanciful Queen Mab monologue. Romeo has some of Friar Laurence’s philosophical speeches about the nature of flowers.
Both are concerned with the passage of time, but in interludes they dance to Monica Dottor’s simple, elegant choreography, quietly basking in the tenderness they feel for each other. Age hasn’t dampened their feelings, though it has made them aware of the passage of time and the fate that awaits every living thing.
Juliet, we learn, is ill and wants help in leaving a life of pain her husband doesn’t want to lose her, which leads to speeches about death spoken in the original by Lady Capulet and Mercutio.
Of course the balcony scene is part of Power’s text – twice, actually – and both times the passion it conjures up moves the speakers as well as the audience.
The play’s final scene is an apotheosis of their relationship, a return to their initial meeting at the Capulet ball. The first words they speak to each other there is a sonnet, the two sharing couplets that are both playful and full of resonant emotion.
As they woo each other, we watch the years fall away from this old couple, who become young lovers again. Palk and Ziegler enact the episode, as they have the rest of the play, beautifully, and we fully believe the joyous, life-affirming nature of love, even in death.
