RONIT & JAMIL

This contemporary take on ROMEO AND JULIET moves the action to Israel and Palestine and tells the story of the star-crossed lovers in verse. The sparse yet lyrical text proves a significant challenge for all of the narrators, especially Nira Amiel and Assaf Cohen, who tackle the roles of the young lovers. The voices of the poems are extremely similar, and Amiel and Cohen fail to enliven them with additional personality. The narrators' use of accents creates a strong sense of place, but extremely regular pacing deflates any potential drama. Laskin quotes liberally from Shakespeare's text and from Middle Eastern poets, but without vocal inflection to clearly delineate quotations, the text sounds cluttered and occasionally nonsensical. E.C. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2017]