Hyperion Escapes Early Demise

Unlike star-crossed lovers and Danish princes seeking revenge, the recently resurrected Hyperion Shakespeare Company is getting a second chance after its initial demise.

The first production of their newfound life will be “Romeo and Juliet,” which will run May 5 and 6 at 4 p.m. in the Adams House Courtyard. Jennie Israel, the associate artistic director of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, directs. Tara L. Moross ’09 and Jason M. Lazarcheck ’08 are the producers.

The Crimson recently sat down with Christopher N. Hanley ’07-’08 and Lois E. Beckett ’09, who is also a Crimson editor, the actors playing Romeo and Juliet respectively. We’ve asked them to spill the beans and give us a behind-the-scenes look on working on the play.

The Harvard Crimson: “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the most well known, if not the most well known Shakespearean play. How do you approach these two characters?

Lois Beckett: I think it’s really hard, especially at the balcony scene because everyone knows it. I used to do it with my friends as a joke at parties...but I was always Romeo because I knew the lines.

Chris Hanley: Oh great. Now I can see you mumbling as I say the words.

LB: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” Originally I wanted to do it almost sarcastically, to cut against the cliché, and Jennie [Isreal] said, “No. You have to do it in a way that really makes it real, as if it’s the first time you’ve said it.”

THC: There are lots of great stories about love in the past, a rather universal theme. What makes the language in “Romeo and Juliet” so special?

LB: I think the thing about the balcony scene that makes it so good is that it’s a scene that shouldn’t ever happen, because where Romeo and Juliet are, they just want to be touching each other. In any other situation, they would just be kissing, and there would be no words. But that can’t happen because of this distance, so they have to use the language to touch each other. The language literally becomes like a caress...

CH: The make-out session...

LB: But through words, because we have to be held apart and that’s what’s so exciting about it.

CH: Once you really take the time to memorize the words and the big monologues, all of a sudden, you’re saying it for the fourth time and it clicks. Suddenly, [you realize] this is what he means, and you say, “That is so hot!” If this is a very personal experience, half the time I found myself saying, “God! I wish this is the way I could talk normally.”

THC: You’ve talked about the experience of working with the other members of the cast. What are some highlights?

LB: I work a lot with Lord Capulet. My father [John Greene] and the nurse [Dipika Guha] are both not Harvard students. Dipika is a special student and John is just in the area and does a lot of improv, and they’re both so great. It seems like this is really bringing a lot of people together from a lot of different places and not just the same cast of characters.

CH: Having done a lot of Harvard theater, I love it in shows when you get a lot of new people. What I love about people who don’t normally do theater is that they bring that outside perspective. My friend [D.] Morgan [Potts ’08] plays Benvolio. He’s actually a hardcore rugby player but he hurt himself. What he draws on for the Romeo-Benvolio friendship is from his friendship with his rugby buddies, and it’s very natural. I think it adds so many degrees and elements to the play itself, things you would never think of if you were strictly limited to a theater or theatrical mentality.

—Staff writer Eric W. Lin can be reached ericlin@fas.harvard.edu.