In one of the most famous scenes in the history of theater, Romeo spies on his crush Juliet, waxing poetic about her beauty. If her eyes were to switch places with a pair of stars, he says,
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp. Her eye in heaven
Would, through the airy region, stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
Juliet goes on to deliver a far more memorable musing — “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, / By any other name would smell as sweet.” — but it was Romeo’s line that stood out to me during Riverside Theatre’s performance of Romeo and Juliet on Friday. By the time Act II, Scene II began, dusk had fallen, the overhead lights were starting to glow in the outdoor theater, and about a dozen songbirds were chirping sweetly from the rafters, sometimes flitting down to rest on the set. I wasn’t in Verona, nor 16th century London, but I felt pretty immersed nonetheless.
The mini Globe Theatre in Iowa City’s Lower City Park reopened grander than ever on Friday, July 13 for the premiere of Riverside’s 40th Free Shakespeare show and 25th season on the festival stage. This year’s production, Romeo and Juliet, runs two more weekends: June 19-22 and June 26-29, all 7:30 p.m. shows. Seats are free, open to all and cushioned for comfort; no tickets needed. There are onsite bathrooms and two concession stands selling beer, wine, pop, kombucha and snacks from Oasis Falafel before the show and during intermission.
It’s easy to be cynical about love while watching or reading Romeo and Juliet. They fall for each other so quickly and so irrationally — Romeo, within minutes of pining over another girl, Rosaline; and Juliet, moments after promising her mother she would allow Paris to woo her. Romeo and Juliet extoll each other’s virtues long before getting to know one another, and are deaf to Friar Lawrence’s warnings about violent delights having violent ends. And lo, it doesn’t end well — these crazy kids are more willing to die than live without the other, and are too quick to prove it.
It’s a testament to the play — and of Riverside’s production — that I managed to be charmed by the couple anyway. Their soliloquies may be bombastic, but they’re as earnest as the birds singing. Casting is key in this regard; the titular characters can’t appear calculating, duplicitous or thoughtless, or the fatal decisions driving the plot make little sense. Mark Worth (Romeo) and Dale Leonheart (Juliet) were great choices, exuding teenage energy with every jibe, squeal and sigh.
Leonheart delivers Juliet’s iconic line almost like a pout, pounding her fists on the windowsill: “Romeo, Romeo… wherefore art thou, Romeo?” One of my favorite line deliveries of the night came near the end of this scene, as the Nurse calls Juliet from inside the house (i.e., backstage) while the lovebirds delay their goodbye. “BY AND BY, I COME!” Juliet shouts back at an impressive volume, in a tone I’m sure adolescent guardians dread to hear. Turning back to Romeo, she softens instantly and returns to swooning.
Juliet is aware that her new relationship is “too sudden, too like the lightning,” but decides to take the ride anyway. She’s the beating heart of the play, and it’s compelling to watch her wrest her agency back from the adults in her life, however tragic the consequences. Worth plays Romeo as the bundle of contradictions he is: devoted but fickle, amiable yet hot-headed, defiant but resigned to fate — a Chalamet-esque portrayal of a sensitive rich kid’s coming of age.
As you might remember arguing in a 9th grade essay, Romeo and Juliet is less about romance than intergenerational conflicts: ancient grudges, youthful impulses and failure to communicate. That was not lost in this staging; the teens may be full of hormonal angst, but the adult Capulets and Montagues are drunken, repressed and as temperamental towards their own kin as their enemies. Love is a far more distant prospect than violence and revelry, which makes the masquerade party fun to experience. It’s less fun when Lord Capulet threatens the life of his daughter because she questions her arranged marriage.
Mark Worth and Dale Leonheart star in Riverside Theatre’s 2025 production of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ in Lower City Park. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Mark Worth as Romeo. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
The cast of Riverside Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’ dance during the masquerade party scene. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Romeo (Mark Worth) and Juliet (Dale Leonheart) get to know each other. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Mercutio (Barrington Vaxter) and Benvolio (Christina Sullivan) lift their spirits after the ball in ‘Romeo & Juliet.’ — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Dale Leonheart as Juliet. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Jay Piper Rosewell as Friar Lawrence and Mark Worth as Romeo in Riverside Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet.’ — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
The Nurse (Joy Vandervort-Cobb) keeps Peter (Joey Lepire) in line while on a reconnaissance mission for Juliet. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Joy Vandervort-Cobb as the Nurse comforts Juliet. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Juliet (Dale Leonheart) makes a fatal decision in Riverside’s ‘Romeo & Juliet.’ — M.T. Bostic/Little Village 
Paris (Devon Stone) challenges Romeo (Mark Worth) in Riverside Theatre’s production. — M.T. Bostic/Little Village
My favorite supporting performances of the night were Joy Vandervort-Cobb’s Nurse and Jay Piper Rosewell’s Friar Lawrence, two adult characters who actually listen and seem to understand Juliet and Romeo. More or less working class friends of the Capulets and Montagues and neutral third parties in their feud, they ultimately fail to help the star-crossed lovers because they, too, are romantics: the Nurse finds Romeo dashing, and wants to see Juliet happy and satisfied, while the Friar, seeing the danger clearly, still thinks he can outwit fate and use the teens to solve an age-old conflict. This leads to poignantly tragic moments, but also moments of hilarity that Vandervort-Cobb and Piper Rosewell milk for all they’re worth.
In these trying times, a lament from the Nurse in Act III, Scene II, after learning Romeo killed Tybalt, feels especially relatable.
There’s no trust,
No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua vitae;
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
The Nurse overflows with maternal love for Juliet, which Vandervort-Cobb plays so beautifully and authentically. So when she fails to understand why Juliet won’t move on after Romeo’s banishment for murdering her cousin, the moment is played almost as tragic as the death scene. You see Juliet’s heart break at the realization she has no more allies left at home. Then she hardens herself, retreating to bed to drink a potion, fake her death and leave them all behind.
Meanwhile, the Friar only succeeds in bringing peace to Verona after failing to save the lives of the kids he used along the way. At the end of the play, the stage is full of confused, guilty and grieving grown-ups, and the bodies of their youngest and brightest. It was always going to end this way — not because Capulets and Montagues are cursed to kill each other, but because no one with power could stand to see it challenged.
There are Shakespeare history plays that speak more directly to the current political moment, but for an occasion like the 25th anniversary of Free Summer Shakespeare, Riverside picked a staple any audience member can follow, but few have probably seen performed in its entirety — at least without the trappings of a “modernized” adaptation or reinterpretation. It’s quintessential Shakespeare in the park, with no microphones but well-projected dialogue, excellent Elizabethan dancing (shout-out choreographer Keegan Colletta Huckfeldt), swashbuckling rapier battles (shout-out fight choreographer K. Michael Moore) and a couple you can’t help but root for (shout-out to Riverside for booking an intimacy choreographer, Carrie Pozdol).
It’s well worth a trip to Lower City Park this month. Between the birds chirping and the occasional visit from Queen Mab riding her gnat into your personal space, you’ll never find a 4D theater experience more affordable.
