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Shakespeare's work a holiday gift

"Romeo and Juliet" is Richmond Shakespeare's Acts of Faith Festival offering, but more to the point, it's a Valentine's Day gift to Richmond.

Playing with "original practice"— the idea that Shakespeare is best presented the way it was in the Bard of Avon's time, with general lighting, acknowledgement of the audience, minimal scenery, etc. — director Grant Mudge tweaks the beloved play in ways that make it new again.
Some of those tweaks seem to take us off on tangents, but some result in intriguing dynamics. Mercutio, played with brio by Joey Ibanez, could just as easily have been one of the drunken wingmen in a buddy movie; that leaves him less heroic than he might be, so it feels less tragic when he is accidentally slain by Jeffrey Cole's Romeo.
Lines directed to audience members by Cole increase the humor; in fact, the young lovers are played largely for laughs at the outset, examples of teenage silliness. It is the skill of Cole and his Juliet, Liz Blake White, that enables them to turn almost on a dime after Mercutio dies, becoming first terrified and whiny and then actually tragic as they fling themselves into life and death.
Mudge focuses unusually strongly on Juliet's nurse, played in a gender-bending tour de force by Thomas L. Cunningham, who steals big hunks of the show with his breathtakingly comic performance. It often seems that the story might have turned out fine if not for the overly romantic meddling of the nurse and, perhaps, that of Freddy Kaufman's Friar Laurence. Kaufman makes Laurence shrewd enough to know better, yet carried away by Romeo's passion.
The minimal scenery, alas, might have been better if minimized still more, but the beautiful costumes by Rebecca Cairns and Ann Hoskins are tremendous assets to the production. And the fighting is excellent, with no less than five people credited for it: Gregg Lloyd for fight direction, Ryan Bechard as his assistant, and Bryan Austin, Foster Solomon and Ibanez as fight captains.
There are more standout performances: Solomon as Capulet, alternately shallow and shattered; David Janosik as a foppish Paris; Jake Allard as a clever Benvolio; Ryan Bechard as Tybalt (his strong but restrained performance made me wish he had more to do). With the 13 actors doubling to cover 30 roles, the energy is astounding and the language, of course, lovely and stirringly spoken.